Beneficial ownership registers for Private Client

Individuals, trustees, personal representatives and their advisers are subject to increasingly numerous and far reaching compliance and regulatory obligations. While seeking to navigate the regimes aimed at increasing transparency and minimising tax evasion worldwide, at the same time as ensuring compliance with data protection rules, trustees must have regard to their fiduciary duties and other trust law principles, such as confidentiality.

In 2014, the G20 countries agreed high-level principles on beneficial ownership transparency. This has led to the creation of different registers recording the beneficial ownership of assets.

For guidance on beneficial ownership registers which may be relevant to Private Client practitioners, see Practice Note: Beneficial ownership registers—private clients and trusts.

Register of persons with significant control (PSC)

To implement the G20 agreed principles in the UK, the government introduced the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 which, together with secondary legislation and by amendments to the Companies Act 2006, requires most UK companies to collect information and keep a register of people who have significant control over a UK company (PSC register) from 24 July 2018, in the same way as they keep

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