Determination of beneficial owners

The obligation to keep and collect data of the beneficial owner, which entered into force on 1 September 2018, arises from Chapter 9 of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act.

By law, private legal entities have an obligation to maintain and collect relevant, accurate and up-to-date information on beneficial owners, as well as information on ownership or other means of exercising control.

Until now, the obligation to identify the beneficial owner has been incumbent on credit and financial institutions, notaries and other obligated persons when establishing a business relationship or concluding transactions. Pursuant to the provisions of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act, which entered into force on 1 September 2018, legal persons in private law are required to disclose their actual beneficiaries through the commercial register. To this end, the shareholders of the company must disclose the details of the beneficial owners to the management board. The management board then submits this information via the company portal or a notary.

Data on beneficial owners must be provided: companies, foundations and non-profit associations (excluding housing and building associations and foundations). There is no obligation for self-employed persons to provide data.

In order to publish the data of these beneficiaries, the authorized person must enter the enterprise portal, click on the link “Actual beneficiaries not specified” on the home page and specify the person (s) from the available selection or enter the data: name, personal identification code, country, role.

Information must be disclosed for natural persons whose direct or indirect participation or other control in the enterprise exceeds 25 per cent.

The deadline for submitting data is 30 October 2018, but the possibility to submit remains open on a permanent basis.

The Ministry of Finance has pointed out in the data submission guide below that the provisions on penalties for non-submission of data of actual beneficiaries will not enter into force before January 2019.

If the data changes in the future, the updated data must be submitted to the register by the management board of the association within 30 days. In the future, the accuracy of the data of the actual beneficiaries must also be confirmed in the company’s annual report, if they have not changed.