As part of the Corporate Transparency Act, Reporting Companies formed on or after January 1, 2024, will need to report their Company Applicants. FinCEN provides a detailed FAQ on Company Applicants.

There can be up to two Company Applicants for each Reporting Company.

1. The individual who directly files the document that creates or registers the company 
2. And - if more than one person is involved in the filing, the individual who is primarily responsible for directing or controlling the filing

So, a typical example of the Company Applicant would be whomever filed your company’s formation documents, e.g. a paralegal or an employee at your Registered Agent (depending on how your entity was formed).

FinCEN provides an example of where two people would be listed as Company Applicants:

For example, an attorney at a law firm that offers business formation services may be primarily responsible for overseeing preparation and filing of a reporting company’s incorporation documents. A paralegal at the law firm may directly file the incorporation documents at the attorney’s request. Under those circumstances, the attorney and the paralegal are both company applicants for the reporting company.

How do I find out who my Company Applicant is?

You will need to ask whomever formed your entity who you should list as the Company Applicant. 

If you used a digital automated formation service, whoever submitted the formation for processing is the Company Applicant.

What do I need to know about Company Applicants?

For each individual who is a Company Applicant, a Reporting Company will have to provide either their FinCEN ID or all of:

1. The individual’s name
2. Date of birth
3. Address
4. An identifying number from an acceptable identification document such as a passport or U.S. driver’s license, and the name of the issuing state or jurisdiction of identification document (for examples of acceptable identification, see Question F.5).
5. The reporting company will also have to report an image of the identification document used to obtain the identifying number in item 4.

If the Company Applicant works in corporate formation—for example, as an attorney or corporate formation agent—then the reporting company must report the company applicant’s business address. Otherwise, the reporting company must report the company applicant’s residential address.

FinCEN’s Small Entity Compliance Guide includes a checklist to help identify the information required to be reported (see Chapter 4.1, “What information should I collect about my company, its beneficial owners, and its company applicants?”).