Just When You Thought FinCEN Couldn’t Get Any Better
FinCEN is at it again. Just when you thought government overreach couldn’t get any better, it did.
FinCEN has now published its final rules for registration of residential real estate transactions. The rules will take effect December 1, 2025.
The stated goal is to eliminate money laundering via real estate.
You personally won’t have to supply the registration information. There is a list of people or institutions involved in the transaction that will be responsible for the actual registration of the required information; the real estate agent, title company, etc.
Basically, all residential real estate transactions that don’t involve a mortgage have to be registered with FinCEN, unless title is taken in the name of an individual.
The regulations read: Transfers are reportable when they meet the following criteria: (1) the property is residential real property; (2) the transfer is non-financed; (3) the property is transferred to a legal entity or trust, and (4) an exemption does not apply.
“Residential” is defined broadly to include raw land where a residence could be built, for example. “Non-financed” is also defined broadly to include gifts, for example. The rules pick up most “entities” that you would commonly think of.
There are some exceptions, such as a transfer because of death, divorce, bankruptcy, court order, or a1031 qualified intermediary. A transfer into a standard living revocable trust would not be required to register provided it is a trust in which the individual, their spouse, or both of them, making the transfer are also the settlor or grantor of the trust. Basically, you transfer it into a trust that you created.
Between FinCEN and the digital dollar, which Biden authorized under Executive Order 14067, the government has put a lock on all it needs to do in order to see every transaction you make. Fed Now has already been implemented. I don’t know if there is any going back at this point.
I got an email today asking what could be done to keep private from the government (specifically FinCEN).
My answer is: you have to comply. Your privacy is gone.