Wolters Kluwer N.V. (WKL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to our live webinar, Year-end compliance - Corporate Transparency Act and more, that has taken place on Tuesday, September 10, 2024. My name is Aisha Stuart and I'll be your moderator. Please note, following today's webinar, there will be a survey question that I will share with you. Also, if you have questions during the presentation, please feel free to submit them in the Q&A and we will follow up after the webinar. Please keep in mind that CT Corporation is not a law firm and therefore, we cannot provide legal advice, including providing advice as to whether any specific entity will be required to file a BOI report. We have included more information in our Resources section and additional information on our website. Our presenters today are Hans Howk, Manager, Content Management; and Sandy Feldman, Publications Attorney for CT Corporation. Please note that a copy of the slides from the presentation is available in the handout section, which is right next to the Q&A box. There are also several related resources included there for your reference. Without further ado, I'd like to turn it over to Sandy Feldman. Welcome, Sandy.

Thank you, Aisha. And I'd like to welcome everyone to our end of the year compliance webinar. Over the next 45 minutes or so, Hans and I will tell you about some of the compliance obligations your company may have to deal with by the end of the year. This is our agenda. We'll start with me discussing compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act. I'll then turn things over to Hans, who will tell you about compliance for remote employees. He'll review key actions your company may have taken this year and the requirements they may have triggered and go over best practices for accomplishing planned actions. And finally, he'll provide some compliance guidance and best practices for entity management. So let's get started. I'm here to talk about just one of those compliance obligations your company may have to deal with. And it's a new one. One that just went into effect this year and it's the requirement to file a beneficial ownership information or BOI report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a federal agency better known as FinCEN. And a BOI report is required by a federal law called the Corporate Transparency Act, or CTA. And we're not going to take a deep dive into the CTA or BOI reporting today. If you need that kind of in-depth information, I invite you to visit our website, ctcorporation.com, where you find on-demand webinars devoted to the CTA and BOI reporting, a series of podcasts, articles on almost every aspect of BOI reporting you can think of and even a quiz to help you determine if your company has to file. This, however, is a webinar on end of the year compliance. So I'm addressing my part, mainly to those of you who own control, manage or advise companies that are required to file their initial BOI report by January 1, 2025 and have not done so yet. I'll start off by providing some BOI reporting basics, including who has to file a report, what information has to be reported and how and where you file a report. Then I'll tell you what the penalties are for noncompliance. I'll go over some of the possible reasons why people have not filed the initial BOI reports for their companies yet. And finally, I'll mention some other important BOI reporting due dates. Let's start with some basic information about BOI reporting. First, who has to file an initial BOI report by January 1, 2025. And every corporation, LLC or other entity that was created by filing a document with the Secretary of State or whatever the state business entity filing office is called and that does not qualify for an exemption has to file a BOI report. These are called domestic reporting companies and domestic reporting companies created before January 1, 2024, have to file an initial BOI report by January 1, 2025. Also, every corporation, LLC or other entity that was created under the laws of a foreign country and registered to do business by filing a document with the state filing office, and that does not qualify for an exemption has to file a BOI report. These are called foreign reporting companies and foreign reporting companies were registered before January 1, 2024, have to file an initial BOI report by January 1, 2025. As I mentioned, if a corporation, LLC or other entity qualifies for an exemption, it does not have to file a BOI report. There are 23 types of entities that are exempt, including publicly traded companies, regulated businesses like banks and insurance companies, 501(c) nonprofits and certain large operating companies. And although 23 sounds like a lot of exemptions, the reality is, most privately owned companies will have to file. Next, what does an initial BOI report that is due by January 1, have to set forth? The reporting company has to provide the company's legal name, any DBA or trade names it's doing business under, the street address of its principal place of business in the United States, it's jurisdiction of formation and for a foreign reporting company, the jurisdiction were first registered and its taxpayer identification number. The initial report also has to provide for every beneficial owner of the reporting company, that individual's legal name, date of birth, home address and the number from a document, which can be their current passport, driver's license or state or local ID, the jurisdiction issuing the document and an image of the document. Or if the beneficial owners provide their information directly to FinCEN and obtain a 12-digit number called the FinCEN identifier, the reporting company can report that 12-digit FinCEN identifier number instead. And who is a beneficial owner you ask? A beneficial owner is defined as an individual who directly or indirectly exercises substantial control over the reporting company or owns or controls at least 25% of its ownership interest. Next, where and how is an initial BOI report filed? The initial BOI report is filed with FinCEN and it must be filed electronically. The filing can be made by anyone authorized by the reporting company. You can file the initial report using FinCEN's platform. You can also file a report using CT's BOI filing platform. If you use CT's filing platform, when you hit submit, your report will go directly to FinCEN. And at the end of this webinar, I'll tell you a little bit more about CT's BOI filing platform. But regardless of the platform you use, what's important is that your company's initial report is filed and that the company is in compliance with this law. We're urging compliance. So let's take a look at what can happen if a reporting company does not comply. And the penalties that can be imposed for willfully violating the CTA's BOI reporting requirement are a civil penalty of up to $591 for each day the violation continues and criminal penalties of a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment for up to 2 years or both. And if you're wondering where we get an odd amount like $591 from, the CTA specifies a base penalty of up to $500 but the amount is adjusted annually for inflation. So currently, it's $591. And as you can probably tell from the fact that a jail term is a possibility, the penalties can be imposed on individuals as well as reporting companies. And those include the individuals who caused the reporting companies to violate the law as well as the senior officers of the reporting company at the time of the violation even if they didn't cause the violation. And the E in FinCEN stands for enforcement and it is FinCEN that's responsible for enforcing the CTA. I can't tell you how strictly they'll be enforcing the CTA, although I can tell you that if you comply, you don't have to worry about it. The BOI reporting requirement went into effect on January 1. So reporting companies have had over 8 months to file their initial BOI report. And so far, FinCEN has received initial BOI reports from about 4 million companies. But FinCEN has estimated that about 32 million companies will be required to file an initial BOI report by January 1, 2025. So that leaves 28 million companies that have not filed yet. Let's take a look at some of the possible reasons why reporting companies have not filed yet. First, a lack of knowledge of the CTA and the BOI reporting requirement by the individuals who own, manage or otherwise are responsible for making sure their company complies with federal, state and local laws. And FinCEN has been criticized for not doing a very good job of spreading the word about the CTA and the need to file a BOI report. FinCEN begs to differ on it. However, if there's anyone who signed up for this webinar because you know your company has some end-of-the-year compliance obligations but you didn't know about the BOI reporting obligation, I'm very happy you're attending because now you know. Another possible reason is misconceptions about the CTA. Our sister company, BizFilings Inc., conducted a survey of small business owners. More specifically, the owners of small and micro companies that meet the definition of a reporting company and therefore, are required to file a BOI report. And the survey showed that a lot of those small business owners hadn't filed their company's report, not because they didn't know that the CTA existed but because of misconceptions as to who the CTA applies to. A number of the small business owners responded that they didn't think the CTA applied to small businesses, only to larger companies. And of course, the exact opposite is true. The CTA is aimed squarely at small companies, large companies, for the most part, are exempt. We also got responses like, my business only has a few employees, or my company doesn't earn much revenue. So we don't have to file. And once again, the opposite is true. Companies with few employees and not much revenue are highly unlikely to qualify for any of the exemptions and, therefore, almost certainly have to file a report. Another reason is people procrastinate. It's just the way a lot of people are, me included. We wait until the last minute to do things, particularly things we may not exactly want to do. But I'd like to caution the procrastinators attending today that you might not want to wait until the last minute to file your company's BOI report. If you do, you run the risk of discovering that you don't have all the information you need or you're not quite sure how to answer a question and might want to consult with an attorney. And all of a sudden, you find yourself in danger of missing the filing deadline and that's a lot of stress you can avoid by not waiting to file. And there are no extensions here. You can't submit a report with information missing and put a note to FinCEN, saying, I'll get you the rest of the information later. You have to file a complete report. And if you can't do that by the deadline, then you're filing late and not in compliance. Another reason is, people are still not sure if their company has to file and are waiting for more guidance from FinCEN. Admittedly, the CTA and FinCEN's reporting rule are filled with gaps and ambiguities. And waiting for guidance from FinCEN was a legitimate reason not to file early in the year. But to quote Yogi Berra, "it's getting late early." And FinCEN has provided quite a lot of guidance, including more than 100 FAQs available on their website. And I think there's a good chance they've provided all the guidance we're going to get this year on the issue of who has to file a BOI report. One of those questions that we know, a lot of people were waiting for guidance on because the answer was not clear from either the CTA or the reporting rule, is whether companies that dissolve or terminate before the due date have to file a BOI report. And FinCEN answered that one in FAQs issued in July, where they said that any reporting company that existed as a legal entity for any period of time on or after January 1, 2024, has to file an initial BOI report, even if it ceased to exist as a legal entity before the initial report is due. And then in FAQ issued just this morning, FinCEN addressed foreign reporting companies. And they said that a foreign reporting company that was registered to do business in the United States on or after January 1, 2024, for any period of time is required to file a BOI report, even if it withdrew its registration before the initial report's due date. Lastly, people think the CTA has been declared unconstitutional and that they don't have to file a BOI report. And in March, a Federal District Court in Alabama, ruled that the CTA was unconstitutional because it exceeds Congress's enumeratory powers under the constitution. And what is most important to understand about that case is that the court only enjoined enforcement of the CTA against the plaintiffs in the case, who are a business owner named Isaac Winkles and his companies, the members of the National Small Business Association as of March 1, 2024, which is only about 60,000 companies and the National Small Business Association itself. Every other reporting company is still required to comply with the CTA, which is something FinCEN announced immediately after the decision. The government has appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. And in its brief, the government argues that the CTA is authorized by the commerce clause and the necessary and proper clause of the constitution, that it's a proper exercise of Congress's authority to regulate foreign affairs and ensure the nation's security and that it's necessary to prevent bad actors from frustrating the government's ability to lay and collect taxes. Where we are now is that oral arguments are scheduled for September 27 and I don't know what the Eleventh Circuit will decide or when it will make its decision. But once again, this decision will only affect the reporting companies of Isaac Winkles and those that were members of the National Small Business Association as of March 1, 2024. There have also been complaints filed in several other federal district courts seeking to have the CTA declared unconstitutional as well as bills introduced in Congress to amend or even repeal the CTA. What will happen with these attacks on the CTA, I don't know. The CTA has many critics but just as many supporters. And the problem the CTA seeks to address, which is money laundering and the finance of terrorism, drug and human trafficking and other illegal activities by anonymous shell companies, is not just a United States problem. It's a global problem. And there's been a lot of international pressure on the United States to join the many other countries that have already committed to establishing a Beneficial Owner Registry. And while I can't tell you what the future holds, I can tell you that as of right now, the CTA is still good law for everyone other than the plaintiffs in Alabama case and FinCEN is still enforcing it. And thinking it will just go away is a risky way to think given the important goal of the CTA and the penalties that can be imposed for willful noncompliance. Finally, I'd like to review some other BOI reporting due dates. So far, I've addressed my remarks to people who have not yet filed [Audio Gap] reporting company's initial BOI report but I'm sure many of you attending today have filed your company's initial report. So I'd like to remind you that if any of the information you reported in the initial BOI report has changed including the information about the company, about who its beneficial owners are and the information reported about the beneficial owners, your reporting company must file an updated BOI report within 30 calendar days of the change. And the penalties, I mentioned earlier, apply to the updating requirement, just as they do the initial reporting requirement. In addition, if a BOI report you filed contains an incorrect statement, a corrective report must be filed within 30 calendar days of when the error was discovered or should have been discovered. Also, domestic reporting companies created this year and foreign reporting companies registering to do business in the United States for the first time this year have to file their initial BOI report within 90 calendar days of receiving notice of their creation or registration. So anyone who created or registered a reporting company and received that notice fewer than 90 days ago and hasn't filed its initial BOI report yet, I remind you to please file. And by the way, that 90-day deadline turns into a 30-day deadline next year. And that's about it for me and end of the year compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act and on to Hans for other end of the year compliance considerations.

Thank you, Sandy. So for the other side of the coin, I'm going to discuss some of the key corporate actions that we've seen companies initiate this year or are planning to initiate this year and how they affect the liabilities across your business license and compliance portfolio. So the top one there, as in recent years, we've seen a lot of action around remote or work-from-home employee compliance, maybe not so much as when COVID was in full swing but the ripples of that situation are still prompting businesses to deal with a lot of new compliance matters that they hadn't encountered prior to the pandemic. So we'll talk about that. We've seen a lot of relocations of company headquarters and additions of new branch offices, nothing new there really. It does remain one of the most common business initiatives. We've seen an increase this year in mergers and acquisitions, the global value of M&A activity for the first half of 2024 was higher than this time last year but still below the 10-year average but we'll discuss M&As a little bit. Corporate spin-offs remain one of the major types of changes in 2024. Some notable spinoffs this year include GE, General Electric spinning off General Electric Vernova, which has a stated purpose of tackling the transition to renewable energy. And then another big one was Lionsgate, the movie producer spinning off Lionsgate Studio. So some big ones there. Then we have business name changes and DBA or doing business as name changes. So it's another one of the most common business initiatives that come across our desk here. Businesses closing or selling entities, another major type of event that requires a lot of reporting to various boards and governing bodies. And then renewals, of course. So renewals of business licenses on a continuing basis, the submission of annual corporate reports, all of that ongoing compliance stuff that we love so much. So this just gives you an idea of what businesses have been doing in 2024 and are planning to do in 2025 and beyond and each of these we are going to go into in just a little further detail. But let's start with remote work-from-home employees. So it's no secret. There's been a major shift since 2020 of employees working remotely from home. Based on current estimates, it's about 1/4 of the workforce in the United States is remote at this time. And that carries with it some obvious and some not so obvious compliance considerations for businesses. First off, a business that traditionally employed workers in the geographic area surrounding its headquarters may have only had to worry about payroll taxes for the state where it was located. But employing remote workers who may be scattered across the U.S. in various locations means that the business might need to register for payroll taxes in every state in which an employee resides and thus works. And that doesn't even take into account states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, which have localities that impose their own local payroll taxes. So your payroll tax liability can increase pretty quickly across your portfolio. Then we have foreign qualification that is registering with a state's Secretary of State in which your business isn't located because you have some business-related presence there. Now most of the time just having an employee living and working there won't trigger a foreign qualification requirement but it might, depending on the work that the employee is doing. So things like sales, nonadministrative work, things like that might trigger the requirement. Every state is different in how they enforce this liability but it is something to consider. Then we have business licenses, of course. So there are states with localities that are actually going to require a local business license in the city or county for a business with a remote employee working within that jurisdiction. And you'll see a list on the slide, they're some of the more stricter states. Some notable cities requiring remote worker business licenses are Seattle, Washington, San Diego, California in some cases, and Washington, D.C. in certain instances as well. So you want to be aware of the laws of the city where your remote workers are located. Then there are some tax nexus considerations. So we mentioned payroll tax registration but even things like state sales tax or corporate income tax that your business may not have been liable for might now be triggered by having an employee presence within that jurisdiction. And then aside from business compliance, just general internal practices around privacy and data security might garner some new attention within your business, especially if you're using tools like remote desktops, shipping company equipment with sensitive data and all that sort of jazz that comes along with remote employees. So just some business considerations there. Changing business locations. So this is a pretty common occurrence in the life cycle of a business. As you grow, you might move your headquarters for one reason or another. And typically, the first thing that needs to happen when your business's physical location changes is that you update your formation documents in your domestic state, assuming your address is listed on those. This generally comes before everything else. And often the other address change filings that will need to be done are going to require that you submit copies of your formation documents showing your new information. Then update any Secretary of State registrations like foreign qualifications, with any of the nondomestic states that you operate in and make sure that any annual reports you are submitting reflects the new location as well. And whether you're changing your business location or adding a new branch office or service location, you'll need to consider what happens for you to -- what needs to happen for you to operate legally in the new jurisdiction. So if your location is in a new state, right, do you need to register with the secretary of that state. We talked about foreign qualification and obviously, different states are going to have different definitions of what exactly they consider doing business in that state as. So it's going to change from state to state. You'll also need to research state and local business licenses that might apply to your business now that you're operating in a new jurisdiction and begin registering for them. And then as we mentioned before, make sure that you're registered for whatever taxes might be required by the new location you have, whether it's sales tax in order to sell tangible goods or payroll tax for employees living within that state or some other type of business tax, whether it's state or local. And then finally, if you use an assumed name or a DBA and you move into a new location, you want to make sure you register that name in whatever way that jurisdiction prescribes, whether by a voluntary filing or a forced DBA filing, which I'll talk about in just a bit. First of all, let's give some insight into one of the more complex sort of business initiatives and that's mergers and acquisitions. Now as I mentioned earlier, the volume of M&A deals was slightly up in 2024 but still a bit down from the peak average. But -- so let's say you've built up a small business into an efficient machine and you're being acquired by a major industry player, for instance, well, there's a lot that goes into it from a legal and compliance perspective. And I'll cover my area of expertise first. So with mergers and acquisitions, you cannot overlook business license changes that might need to occur. If your business has merged with another, there's going to be what's called a surviving entity and that's the entity that is taking over and continuing on to do business and also a nonsurviving entity and that's obviously the business that more or less gets absorbed by the survivor. So with business licenses, you'll most likely need to change the ownership on many of the old business licenses in the non-surviving entity's portfolio or cancel them. But the change of ownerships are usually accomplished with a change of ownership filing or else just a quick notification to that jurisdiction stating that this non-surviving entity is no longer in business due to a merger. Now whether or not the EIN is changing, the federal employee identification number, as a result of that M&A, that's going to determine a lot of the local business license change filings. Usually, if the EIN doesn't change during the merger or the acquisition, the license can be amended through some sort of basic filing with the licensing authority. If it does change, usually, you'll need to close the old license and apply for a brand new one under the surviving entity. In essence, so you just need to make sure that all the non-surviving businesses licenses are either closed or transferred to the new surviving business wherever appropriate. And that bleeds right into the section of the top right there. So depending on what exactly is happening with the business structurally, some filings are going to need to be done before the actual merger or acquisition and some of them after. And so along with any licenses, businesses are going to need to update tax registrations, DBA names, have foreign qualifications. For foreign qualifications specifically you might need to file withdrawal notices for the non-surviving entity. But one of the key takeaways here and one of the trickiest pieces for businesses to navigate during these sorts of changes is the timing aspect. When did you what, the sequence of events, et cetera. And this is why it's vital to have a smart project plan or to partner with a compliance organization who can do that for you. Moving down to the bottom, you'll obviously want to internally update any structural changes in the business entity type as well as the officers or principal individuals that might be changing. Now most of the time, if we're just talking about your various licenses, corporate filings and tax registrations, all these items can be amended at the same time in 1 filing. So it's not like you have to file an amendment for a name change and then one for an address change and then one for an officer change. These are usually done at the same time, usually through whatever the major filing is that needs to be accomplished. But when we're talking internally, there might be a ton of small individual updates that you'll need to undertake. And finally, once all is said and done, it's a good idea to retouch base with the major regulators and just confirm that your new updated business is in good standing, that no reports are overdue and that there are no outstanding taxes owed, et cetera. Okay. Let's talk for a minute about corporate spin-offs. So as a business owner, you might decide to transfer a major aspect of your business to a separate entity owned by you or you might decide to create a brand-new corporate entity to take on some aspect of your business. Assuming that you are creating a new entity and not simply spinning off functions into an entity that already exists, this is going to begin with forming that new entity. And this is business formation 101. So I'm not going to go too much into it. You'll need to file your documents with the Secretary of State, get an EIN, all that kind of thing. Really, the only wrinkle in forming a spun-off entity though is making sure that you accurately report the ownership of the spun-off entity. So is the owner going to be an individual? Or is it going to be that other entity? Now once the new entity is set up, you can begin to transfer whatever business activity or function, you decide it is going to be performed by that entity. Some of the trickier stuff, though is, let's say, for example, that your business entity conducted business in all 50 states but you create a spun-off entity to handle only East Coast operations. So after forming your East Coast spun-off entity and registering for all the licenses and tax registrations for that entity, you're going to need to think about the aspects of your original entity that are no longer relevant. So that means you can probably cancel a lot of the business licenses and tax registrations that were held by that original entity. So a lot of folks -- it's easy to think about applying for new and transferring. A lot of times, businesses miss the obligation of canceling or withdrawing no longer relevant registrations or licenses. And then that can be a problem. And like we mentioned in the last slide, check for the notification requirements within the license portfolios for all of your entities. So did this corporate spin-off cause a change in the org structure of some part of your business? Are there new officers? You might need to notify state regulatory boards of those changes. To boil it all down, again, you want to make sure that your actual business activity, organizational structure and jurisdictional footprint is reflected as accurately as possible within your business licenses as state registrations. Inaccuracies can cause delays in license approval or renewal and they can sometimes even carry penalties for noncompliance. Okay. So time for a little discussion into business name changes. It's one of the most common types of changes we encounter. A business might start with a name that reflects its original activity but over time, it sort of loses its fit for whatever reason. If you're planning to change your businesses name, the first step is making sure that the name you want is available in the jurisdictions you plan to operate, typically beginning with your domestic state. Business name searches are usually pretty simple. They're done, I think overwhelmingly online now, you can determine if a business name is available for you, reserve it. And then you can file the amendment to your formation documents showing that you're transitioning to the new reserved name. Now if you also maintain fictitious names or DBA names in your state either at the state level or at the local level, keep in mind, any requirements that exist for those. So if you had operated under a DBA prior to changing your actual business name, you'll have to amend or reregister those DBAs as well. And this is another area where businesses seem to be the least organized. It might be because DBAs for -- they're usually long-lasting and low maintenance. They don't carry annual expiration dates. You kind of register and forget about it for 5 years until it expires. But regardless, when it comes to make a sweeping change across your entire license portfolio, the less organized you are, the harder it's going to be to get everything done so that you can operate legally. So just make sure you have good records of where you maintain DBAs, what your exploration data is on them and what the requirements are to maintain or change them. Once -- so once you've done your amendment in your home state, you can then begin filing for name change amendments in foreign jurisdictions. And this is really a matter of following the same process we just went over, except instead of doing it domestically, you're doing it with foreign secretary of states. Now let's, really quick, I want to touch on a forced DBA filing. This is something that can get confusing. But let's just say you successfully changed your business name in your domestic state but that name that you want to use isn't available in a foreign state, you may then be subject to a forced DBA filing in the foreign state, which is the type of filing that accounts for that sort of issue essentially by adding a unique DBA modifier to your foreign business registration so that you're able to conduct business under the forced DBA. Then once all of your name change information has gone through both domestically and in your foreign Secretary of State registrations, you can move on to updating your business licenses. That's usually a pretty simple filing. Oftentimes, the jurisdictions are going to want to see a copy of your amended Secretary of State filings with your domestic state or with whatever their state is, just showing that your name is, in fact, amended. There can sometimes be a small fee for the change. Some really small local jurisdictions might just require that you send them an e-mail, letting them know that your business name has changed. Then step 7 up there, you can go ahead and file for any assumed names if applicable, where you need to. So some states are going to allow single DBA registration to cover all the areas within its borders. But there are some tricky states as well like New Mexico, for instance, that might make you file for a DBA name in literally every single county in which your business is transacted. So just be aware of that. There might be a lot of work if you carry a lot of DBA names across the United States. And then finally, step 8 there, if you have business loans, surety bonds issued in your business name, deeds or leases under your business name, these are all items that might need to be updated now that your business has a new name, so don't neglect those either. Overall, updating a business name can be a pretty simple process made very complex, depending on how large your business footprint is. So conducting research, building a plan of execution is essential to making sure you don't have interruptions in business while changing your name. And then quickly, the final change event I want to touch on is closing or selling your business. When doing so, it's important to ensure that your business entity is in good standing as many jurisdictions require this before allowing you to withdraw or cancel your licenses. This typically means you must ensure all taxes are paid and your business has no outstanding issues. Once you have confirmation of good standing, which is usually done through the State's Department of Revenue, or whatever issues, corporate taxes or sales taxes or other taxes that you might owe, once you have that confirmation, then your business is in good standing and tax free, you can begin dissolving your foreign qualification or Secretary of State registrations and canceling any business licenses and tax registrations. This process often involves a simple e-mail, if it's a small jurisdiction or a short form submitted to the jurisdiction. But it can be a little more complex when you're talking about industry licenses that are super complex or require a lot of regulatory oversight. So matters of public health, food, things like that. Additionally, if you're canceling tax registration accounts, you may need to file what's called a final return, shoring up any remaining balances there. Lastly, don't forget to cancel any assumed business names you may have registered. So now that we've covered the various change events, let's turn our attention quickly just to some central end-of-year housekeeping tasks. First, it's important to check your public records against your internal records. You want to ensure that what is displayed publicly, whether on a Secretary of State's website or a business license roster accurately reflects your business. Because if there's a mismatch, such as your business name being inconsistent between public and internal records, you're going to need to submit the necessary filings to correct it. Next, plan ahead by setting up a compliance calendar. This is a crucial step. I personally believe that having a clear system for tracking business license renewals, for instance, whether it's in a spreadsheet or another internal tool, is key to managing your business efficiently. Staying organized helps ensure compliance. And without it, there is a risk of falling out of compliance. It's, of course, important to regularly report any changes to your business's governance structure. So whether it's an officer change, the departure of a qualifying individual or the addition of a new one, just be sure to report those changes promptly. You should also conduct regular KYC checks, that's know your customer checks, which involve verifying the identity of your clients to ensure that they are who they claim to be, as a way to prevent fraud and money laundering. So especially if you're a highly regulated business like a finance company, you want to regularly request ID verification, maybe not super regularly but certainly, at certain points throughout your business's life cycle and just make sure you have a handle on the details of your major clients. Major regulator -- excuse me, many regulators require this, so it's not always just good business practice, it's often a legal requirement. So don't neglect that. Then finally, stay up-to-date with local compliance requirements. So regulations for business licenses and local compliance, they're not static and they can change frequently. For instance, a business license fee may increase, a form might be updated or the requirements for legal operation might shift entirely. So keep an eye on those changes. And let me just say that local jurisdictions can sometimes be pretty strange with how they manage this stuff. Local codes and ordinances are -- follow these, like centuries old laws, maybe not centuries but certainly decades old laws and strange situation-based rules, sometimes a business licensing office for a small town, it's literally just somebody's house. I've seen it all pretty much at this point. But these localities, they still have the authority to penalize you or even revoke your license, so don't disrespect their authority. Just know what's required to keep your business operating within their rules and regulations. And I said finally but there's couple more there, work with a provider with expertise. So not to toot our own horn too much but Wolters Kluwer CT Corporation has years of experience handling all kinds of new business filings, change filings, businesses that come to us literally not having a record of their license portfolio whatsoever, not remembering where they've registered to do business, what licenses are expired are out of date. There are providers like us that can help organize your process, accomplish when you need done as quickly and accurately as possible. And then finally, finally, leverage technology to manage your compliance portfolio. So creating a compliance calendar was something I mentioned earlier, which is a great idea. All the better if it comes with automatic notifications for filings that are coming due, those kinds of features, lots of tech advances like online renewal submission options. Some jurisdictions will allow you to simply go on to their website, enter your business license number and pay your invoice, which is so much easier than filling out a paper form and writing a check and sending it through the mail. So technology can increase the ease and efficiency of managing a business license portfolio tenfold. Now I'll hand it -- let's talk about how CT can help here real quick. So Wolters Kluwer CT Corporation has solutions for almost every area that we covered today. So in addition to our legacy of providing registered agent services, business formation assistance and annual reporting, we offer business license solutions -- solutions and services as well. Now no matter how complex your business activity might be, we can generally make management of this area streamlined and efficient. So we offer streamlined license filing services. Basically, you provide us with your business information during intake and we use it to prepare and submit any filings you need and follow up with the jurisdiction until your license or registration is approved and issued. Our Client License Information Center, which you see down there at the bottom left, it's called CLiC for short. It's a turnkey application for organizing and managing your business license and tax registration portfolio. Basically, with CLiC, you can view all of your licenses and registrations in 1 organized place. You can track status changes and license filings, you can even order new filings and manage changes as well. We also offer renewal services. Most renewals come every year and we can take those off your plate, bringing you up to manage your day-to-day operations with some peace of mind. And then finally, we have a pretty robust and growing catalog of ongoing compliance solutions like quarterly subscription digests that highlight regulatory changes and legal updates in your industry, verification of your licensed portfolio and those of vendors with whom you partner. And of course, you get a dedicated account manager with a team of legal researchers and the largest business licensing knowledge base in the industry at your disposal. So I'll hand it off to Sandy to talk a little more about how CT can help with beneficial ownership fillings.

Okay. As promised, I'm back to tell you about how CT can help you with your BOI filings. Our BOI filing platform is secure, user-friendly and simplifies CTA compliance for you. It's also fast and automated and can save you hours on each filing and it can be used to file a single report or multiple reports. And as it says on the slide, time is running out. So if you haven't filed your company's initial BOI report yet, please do soon. We don't want to see anyone become subject to those harsh penalties. And that is about it for our end of the year compliance webinar. We'd like to thank everyone for attending. And now back to Aisha to close things out.

Thank you, Hans and Sandy. Before we conclude today's webinar, I would like to go over a survey question. Please have a CT expert contact me regarding beneficial ownership filings, business license, questions or other compliance questions. Please note that this is not required and it's an optional question. I will read the survey question again. Please have a CT expert contact me regarding beneficial ownership filings, business license questions or other compliance questions. Thank you for joining. This concludes today's live webinar. You may now disconnect.