Companies Rush to Prepare for Treasury’s Owner Information Rules

Within days, tens of millions of companies will face new requirements to tell the government more about who owns them—and many of them don’t even know it.

Starting Jan. 1, companies are required to report their “beneficial ownership” to the Treasury Department—the identities and other information about the people who control the company. The aim is to stop money laundering and illicit financing by anonymous shell companies, and thus help stop the financing of terrorism, drug trafficking, and other global crime.

But as the start date nears, business groups say many of the estimated 32 million-plus companies required to disclose ...