You're thinking about this as though the system is free of uncertainty and prosecutors didn't use overcharging to extract plea bargains.
If doing something could allow the prosecutor to plausibly charge you with this, even if you wouldn't be convicted, you now have to be counseled in doing it to avoid that possibility, otherwise you could be coerced into pleading guilty to something you didn't do because the alternative is prohibitively expensive legal defense from a questionable charge with a low risk of a high penalty.
Businesses are risk averse with things like this, so now, because of the possible implications, they'll hire a lawyer/accountant to deal with it, increasing compliance costs on many innocent people.
Not really. I totally agree that if you have committed some kind of crime, then this could be part of overcharging you.
My point is that if this is all they have then they don’t have a case, so legitimate businesses don’t need to stress about about clerical errors landing them in jail.
> I totally agree that if you have committed some kind of crime, then this could be part of overcharging you.
There is no if. Everybody is committing a crime all the time. There are laws that prohibit doing things that other laws mandate. There are more pages of laws on the books than anyone could read in a lifetime, so there is no feasible way to know that a given action isn't illegal.
Businesses are engaged in risk management. They try to avoid knowingly breaking the law. Making that process consume more resources, increases compliance costs.
The law likely will make little difference for its intended effect, but will create compliance costs.
It will also needlessly lead to the disclosure of personal information from people doing nothing wrong, simply because using tax disregarded LLCs has become a widespread practice to patch around just about everything else constantly demanding your personal info and leaking it everywhere.
By demanding the submission of this information, having harsh penalties for avoiding it, and providing apparently zero protection or consequences for disclosing it... that outcome is essentially guaranteed.
If doing something could allow the prosecutor to plausibly charge you with this, even if you wouldn't be convicted, you now have to be counseled in doing it to avoid that possibility, otherwise you could be coerced into pleading guilty to something you didn't do because the alternative is prohibitively expensive legal defense from a questionable charge with a low risk of a high penalty.
Businesses are risk averse with things like this, so now, because of the possible implications, they'll hire a lawyer/accountant to deal with it, increasing compliance costs on many innocent people.