Columbia, S.C. — South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is co-leading a 25-state brief that was filed on Wednesday. The group went to a federal court to as they say, "protect small businesses and uphold states’ authority to regulate the formation of corporations."

According to a press release, the brief asks the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a ruling which came from a lower court that the Corporate Transparency Act is unconstitutional.

The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), would require businesses with 20 or less employees to report personal identifying information about their “beneficial owners” to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s criminal enforcement bureau.

A “beneficial owner” is someone who either exercises substantial control over the business or owns/controls 25 percent or more of ownership interest in it.

“Right before Christmas, the federal government is acting like Ebenezer Scrooge by trying to squeeze billions of dollars out of small businesses,” Attorney General Wilson said.

In the next two years of the CTA, its projected that small businesses nationwide would spend over 150 million hours and nearly 30 billion dollars to comply.

Last March, a federal court ruled that the CTA is unconstitutional. However, The Biden-Harris administration has appealed that ruling.

South Carolina, West Virginia, and Kansas are co-leading a brief by 25 states asking the Court of Appeals to agree that the act is indeed unconstitutional and that it should be struck down permanently.