The Luxembourg government adopted on February 15, 2019 a Grand-Ducal Regulation regarding the registration, fees and other charges relating to the forthcoming Register of Beneficial Owners, as well as on to the register’s information. The regulation supplements and adds additional detail to the provisions of the law of January 13, 2019 creating the register of beneficial owners. Both the regulation and legislation came into force on March 1.
Registration procedure
The regulation sets out technical details of the registration procedure for entities required to identify and disclose their beneficial owners to the Register of Beneficial Owners in accordance with the January law. The registration must be submitted online on the website of the Luxembourg Business Register (www.lbr.lu), or directly at the premises of the Luxembourg Business Register in the case of entities that are unable to complete the registration online. The registration request must be submitted in one of Luxembourg’s three official languages, French, German or Luxembourgish. This means that registration requests may not be submitted in English. If the registration request concerns one or more beneficial owner(s) who are not personally registered in the Luxembourg Register of Companies and Commerce, the request must include the beneficial owners’ official identification documents, along with a translation into French, German or Luxembourgish if the official identification document is not written in Latin characters.
Verification of information
Under the legislation, the Luxembourg Business Register can require any registered entity to verify whether the information indicated in the Register of Beneficial Owners is correct and up to date. The regulation stipulates that in such cases the entity must check the information available on the website of the Luxembourg Business Register, and either confirm its accuracy or update the information by submitting a fresh registration request online.
Access to the register
The regulation provides that certain information in the Register of Beneficial Owners concerning beneficial owners, including their name, nationality, date and place of birth, country of residence and nature and extent of their ownership interests in the entity in question, are publicly available on the website of the Luxembourg Business Register and accessible free of charge.
The public can access the information by entering details of the entity concerned, such as its name, corporate purpose or register identification number. However, it will not be possible for members of the public to search the register through the name of the beneficial owner, which is possible only only for the national authorities. It is also possible to request official extracts from the register or certificates of non-registration, which may be provided either in electronic or paper form.
Fees
Any registration or modification of the information concerning the beneficial owner is subject to a fee of €15 + VAT. Separate fees will be charged for extracts from the register or certificates of non-registration, €5 +VAT in electronic form and €10 + VAT on paper.
All entities obliged to register under the law are exempted from the payment of such administrative fees until August 31, 2019.
Circular on the Luxembourg Business Register
To clarify practical details on the registration procedure and other aspects of the functioning of the Register of Beneficial Owners, its operator, the Luxembourg Business Register, issued on February 25 Circular LBR 19/01 regarding the Register of Beneficial Owners. It contains a summary of the key elements of the law and regulation as well other practical aspects of the register. The circular is available (in French only) on the website of the Luxembourg Business Register (www.lbr.lu).
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