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BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published January 10, 2025
During
the last few years under the Biden government we have seen
agencies – like the US Treasury – making all kinds of rules that
made our lives more difficult and complicated.
One real
bad example was the CTA -- the Corporate Transparency Act. It
much as it possibly makes sense for big corporations with
international business, it was in my opinion a total overreach
when the
U.S. Department of Treasury
demanded even small businesses, including community associations
and little not-profit corporation to fill out these burdensome
forms.
Community associations had to spend money to get help filing the
Beneficial Ownership Information
Report (BOI) and even saw board members resigning who were
unwilling to give out some of the required information. Claiming
that it was supposed to be a 1-time filing was absolute
nonsense. Especially community associations, where board members
are changing pretty often, would have a permanent requirement
for refiling these reports.
Finally,
on December 26,
2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit paused the
enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), thus
pausing the beneficial ownership reporting requirements for U.S.
small business owners, including community associations.
But hopefully, with the new government under President Donald
Trump, we will see a big change in policies, stopping a lot of
these “overreach” regulations that burdens small business owners
and community association board members.
George Orwell, in his 1984 novel, warned us about “BIG
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”. Let’s not fall into this trap
even more.
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community associations. |
He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website:
http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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