It came into force on April 28 Law of Ukraine "On Prevention and Counteraction to Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction", which, in particular, changes the procedure for disclosure of information about the ultimate beneficial owners of a legal entity.
Who is the ultimate beneficial owner?
an individual who holds at least 25% votes in a legal entity
or
an individual who exerts a decisive influence on a legal entity.
How was information about beneficiaries disclosed before the adoption of the Law?
It is very simple, by filling in the relevant application during the registration of a legal entity or changing the information about the beneficiaries themselves.
What has changed?
All legal entities registered before April 28 are required to submit to the state registrar:
1. an appropriate statement with information about all its beneficiaries;
2. ownership structure;
3. a document confirming the residence of the founder, in the case where the founder is a non-resident legal entity;
4. a notarized copy of the document certifying the person who is the beneficiary - for a non-resident individual.
So when do you need to run to the state registrar?
At the notice of the state registrar, legal entities will only have 3 months from the date of entry into force of the document which will approve the same ownership structure.
It is unknown at this time what this structure will look like and when it will be approved🤷♀.
These are not all the interests contained in the Law.
Annually, within 14 calendar days from the date of state registration, legal entities are required to submit to the state registrar the same package of documents as mentioned above, thereby confirming the information about their beneficiaries.
If the legal entity has changed beneficiaries, please also notify the state registrar: within 30 working days from the date of their change.
And if the beneficiaries do not change?
It is still necessary to notify the state registrar. Report what? On the absence of changes in the beneficiaries. In this case, this must be done during each registration action.
Of course, the law contains and responsibility for failure to submit or late submission to the state registrar of information about the beneficiary or his absence, as well as for failure to submit documents to confirm such information. The head of the legal entity will be threatened a fine in the amount of 17,000 to 51,000 hryvnias.
As we can see, the new Law significantly changes the procedure for disclosing information about beneficiaries. However, those legal entities that conceal information about beneficiaries may continue to do so simply by paying a fine.
Everyone else has to wait until the dream ownership structure is approved and take a turn to the state registrar.
So what is it, relief or complication?
