It is time to raise the awareness of the UK’s registers that it has put into place and intends to introduce regarding beneficial ownerships, which refers to the person who ultimately owns or controls an asset such as a property or a company and may differ from the legal owner. The purpose of beneficial ownership registers is to prevent individuals from being able to hide assets and income on which they own tax.
What the royal assent and more is all about, you can read below!
Existing register: People with Significant Control (PSC) register
The UK already has the People with Significant Control (PSC) register, which has been publicly available since 2016. To increase the accuracy of information provided by the PSC register, the UK government published a white paper setting out 58 proposed UK company and PSC regimes. Reforms are expected to be included in an Economic Crime Bill in the 2022/23 parliamentary session.
Existing register on Trusts & EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Directive
The existing register on trusts was introduced in 2017 and is not public but as a requirement of the EU’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD), the UK introduced a non-public register of beneficial ownership for trusts in July 2017. The Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) extended access to members of the public if they can demonstrate a legitimate interest (Commons Library Research Briefing – 23rd March 2022).
UK Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022
The UK introduced a secondary legislation to extend the registration deadline from 10th March 2022 to 1st September 2022 after since 2016, the UK Government indicated that it planned to launch a public beneficial ownership register for UK property. In response to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (The Act) was fast-tracked and royal assent was obtained on 15th March 2022, of which the Register of Overseas Entities is discussed below.
«The Act» has 70 sections and is divided into three main measures:
(1) register of Overseas Entities;
(2) unexplained wealth orders; and
(3) sanctions.
«The Act» is applicable across the UK and it was introduced to increase transparency on the overseas owners or lease holders of land in the UK. «The Act» requires overseas entities to identify and register beneficial owners of any land they own in the UK. The overseas entity must register with the UK Companies House, which is publicly accessible, review and update relevant information on an annual basis. There is a short transition period of 6 months from commencement date of «The Act» to allow timely registration.
An overseas entity is governed by the law of a country outside of the UK. Overseas entities that acquired property in the UK after 1st January 1999 or that acquire it in the future are subject to the Act. Any exemptions under «The Act» are narrow.
The UK Companies House launched the Register of Overseas Entities on 1st August 2022. According to the latest sources, HM Revenue & Customs will launch a new campaign in September 2022 to address non-compliance linked to offshore entities owning UK real estate (Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) – 23rd August 2022).
Non-Compliance
Non-compliance will result in criminal sanctions, ranging from fines of £ 2,500 a day to unlimited fines and prison sentence of up to five years.
What is required to be provided by Overseas Entities
The overseas entities will need to provide basic details about itself such as name, country of incorporation, registered office, service address, legal form and applicable governing law, details of any overseas public register and registration number.
The overseas entity concerned will be required to provide one of the three following statements
(1) The entity has identified one or more registrable beneficial owners; it can provide information about each beneficial owner and that there is no reason to believe that there are others;
(2) The entity has no reasonable cause to believe that it has any registrable beneficial owners; and
(3) The entity has reasonable cause to believe that there is at least one registrable beneficial owner that is has not identified or the entity is not able to provide the required information about one or more of the registrable owners it has identified or both aforementioned point under statement 3 apply.
Assistance by Leo Trust Switzerland AG
Leo Trust Switzerland AG supports you (not only) in the review of structures and reporting entities / persons, review of required documents and reactivation of entities, negotiate outstanding fees and penalties for the restoration / reactivation of a company and related matters.
Do you have any inquiries? Dr. Roderik J.P. Strobl, Relationship Manager Key Clients, will provide you with the information you need.
–
This article is aimed at providing a general overview and summary of the issue. It is non-binding, and does not and should not be taken to constitute legal advice.
Family office trends are changing the face of the financial and fiduciary services industry. Shifting family office preferences require the accommodation of practitioners’ services and an adapted mindset. In this STEP Journal article Dr Roderik J. P. Strobl, TEP from Leo Trust Switzerland surveys the global family office landscape and analyses its trends.
Discover the importance of succession planning for BVI entities and explore options to improve it in our expert article – contact us at corporate@leotrust.ch for more details and an in-person meeting.
Moncucchetto 2024, co-hosted with EFG Bank, featured insightful presentations by Dr. Daniel Murray on the influence of politics on investments and Prof. Dr. Paolo Bernasconi on AI and cybercrime.
Dr. Roderik J. P. Strobl, TEP appointed as new CEO, Natalie Sigrist joins Leo Trust Management as Head of Private Clients
Leo Trust Switzerland AG is bronze sponsor of this year's STEP ALPINE CONFERENCE
The long-awaited updated of Leo Trust Switzerland’s Economic Substance & Beneficial Ownership Reporting general overview of various jurisdictions is available.
This article describes key changes in the new Swiss inheritance law, including some examples.
The Role of the Board of Directors and Management in Sustainable Value Creation
We are very pleased to announce that Leo Trust Switzerland AG has won for the second time in a row at the prestigious Swiss Wealth Briefing Awards 2023 in the Private Client Category Best Institutional Trust or Fiduciary Company.
The authors of this article review the 78 submissions presented on 475 pages to the Swiss Federal Government in Italian.
In this article, Dr. Strobl explores the growing importance of smart contracts and the significant growth in the Crypto Valley, which is gaining importance.
COVID-19 has had a profound impact on family businesses, especially with respect to operations, investments, digital money and the coaching of the next generation.
It is time to raise the awareness of the UK’s registers that it has put into place and intends to introduce regarding beneficial ownerships, which refers to the person who ultimately owns or controls an asset such as a property or a company and may differ from the legal owner. The purpose of beneficial ownership registers is to prevent individuals from being able to hide assets and income on which they own tax.
Popular holiday destination or major international financial centre? Both, says Harris Makriyiannis. The Managing Director of Leo Trust Cyprus talks also about services, products, the future – and eco-label awarded beaches.
Asia Outbound, designed to assist corporate structuring, asset protection, and immigration service providers, is one of the most trusted resources for Asia’s business and investment leaders. Leo Trust was not just attending this year’s Asia Outbound Summit in Dubai but participating with various key-note speeches.
What Leo Trust specialised in a few years ago was a much-discussed topic at this year's World Economic Forum: Non-Fungible Tokens, NFT. Leo Trust shed light on the fascination of NFT from an investment perspective at the WEF in Davos – and captivated the numerous guests with a live tokenization of a work of art.
Trusts have become an integral part of international wealth structuring and estate planning. Switzerland does not yet have its own trust law. Nevertheless, in 2018 the Federal Council was mandated to create the legal basis for a Swiss trust to strengthen Switzerland as a financial centre. But what is the situation today and what does the future hold?
Interlaken was calling. A delegation of Leo Trust Switzerland participated this year’s STEP Alpine Conference and talked, amongst others, about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the private client industry and provided insights to more than 300 participants.
At Leo Trust’s special event, special investigator of the Kantonspolizei Zürich, Adrian Leuzinger, appeared in front of a «full house». The deputy head of the task force did not, of course, go into the tactical and technical procedures of the police, but nevertheless revealed a great deal.
Switzerland's flat-rate taxation is an attractive tax model for wealthy foreign individuals. The approved flat-rate taxation, also called «lump-sum», «golden visa» or «tax ruling», is at the same time a residence permit. But beware: Requirements, handling, assessment bases etc. can vary from canton to canton. Moreover, not every canton offers this tax model.
Trust is an integral part of customer relationships and services, including digital services. But what are trust factors, what about the charter of trust – and what role plays artificial intelligence?
Thanks to client-centric and trust-based strategy, first-class service quality, committed interdisciplinary teams of trust experts and the optimal position to provide highly complied crypto currency services – Leo Trust Switzerland wins the WealthBriefing Swiss Awards 2022 in the category «Institutional Trust or Fiduciary Company».
Investors and trustees need a clearer assessment of their investment risks, which calls for new risk assessment models and tax regulations for crypto assets.
In 2022, Panama will enforce two new obligations on entities: exclusively asset holding companies will be subject to the requirement to maintain accounting records going back five years, and both «commercial» entities operating outside Panama and exclusively asset holding entities will be obliged to submit annual accounting records to their Resident Agents.
On 15 October 2021, Cyprus approved the «Strategy for Attracting Businesses for Activities or/and Expansion of their Activities in Cyprus». With various key proposals, this action plan offers significant advantages for investors in Cyprus – and shows how Cyprus is becoming ever more business friendly.
Forward-looking asset management includes estate planning. If assets are inherited on death or given away during the donor’s lifetime, inheritance or gift taxes are incurred. It is possible to reduce the tax burden by making a gift during your lifetime, with a usufruct.
Economic Substance Act, Beneficial Onwership Act, possible sanctions, deadlines ... Are you keen on some insights on Bahamas, Belize, B.V.I., Cayman Islands, Marshall Islands Panama and Cyprus?
Polo sport is interdisciplinary, sophisticated, strategically challenging and racy. On top of that, it is synergizing tradition and innovation. No wonder we were excited to be part of the Patrons Cup.
Congratulations to Accuro Fiduciary, the winner of the STEP Private Client Awards 2021/2022 – category trust company of the year (midsize firm).
What may lead to a loss of trust between Swiss family offices and Swiss financial institutions and how it may be restored.
Leo Trust Switzerland has been shortlisted in the category of trust company of the year (midsize firm) in the prestigious STEP Private Client Awards, which highlights excellence among private client advisors in the international trust and financial services industry.
Leo Trust Switzerland AG is a globally active financial services provider for 40 years, offering a variety of services for institutional and private clients. However, the business is changing. On the one hand, due to constantly changing regulatory standards and laws; on the other hand, due to digitalisation, globalisation and highly specific client expectations.
