New York Notches Up Its War On Real Estate

New York’s Legislature has passed a piece of legislation that would, if signed by the governor, publicly disclose the names of every real estate or other investor who plays a substantial role in any limited liability company that does business in New York. The Legislature took inspiration from the federal Corporate Transparency Act passed a few years ago, which required filing the same information and more with a federal agency. There, it is all supposed to remain confidential, except as needed for law enforcement. The federal filing requirement starts in January 2024 unless postponed, which seems likely.

New York’s lawmakers decided the federal system wasn’t enough. Their new law would create a whole second system of its own. It would differ from the federal system in a few ways. As the most important difference, New York’s proposed system would not maintain confidentiality of the business address of each LLC and the names of LLC owners who have “substantial control” of the LLC as defined in the federal law. That information would become publicly available to anyone with an Internet connection. Perhaps concerningly, the new system would also disclose whatever else the New York Secretary of State decides should be disclosed.