Strategizing Multinational Tax Risks

The Prime Minister announced that ownership details of UK companies will be made publicly accessible.

This announcement was preceded by a Discussion Paper in July 2013 outlining various proposals of the initiative, including the statement in paragraph 11: “The names of legal owners appear on an individual company’s share register, which is publicly available.  But if we want to know who really owns and controls a company, we must identify its beneficial owners too.  The beneficial owners are the individuals that ultimately own or control the company – either because they hold an interest in more than 25% of the company’s shares or voting rights; or because they control the management of the company in some other way.”

Links to the announcement, Discussion Paper, and executive summary of the Discussion Paper are attached for reference.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/public-register-to-boost-company-transparency

Click to access bis-13-959es-transparency-and-trust-enhancing-the-transparency-of-uk-company-ownership-and-increaing-trust-in-uk-business-executive-summary.pdf

Click to access bis-13-959-transparency-and-trust-enhancing-the-transparency-of-uk-company-ownership-and-increaing-trust-in-uk-business.pdf

This initiative is likely to be followed closely by other countries, and details requiring UK disclosure should be reviewed early to adopt Best Practices and address questions arising in the UK and around the world from this public disclosure announcement.  

Related articles

• Transparency International welcomes UK implementation of public register of beneficial owners (amynos.wordpress.com)
• The Africa Progress Panel Welcomes UK Announcement On Beneficial Ownership (modernghana.com)
• Cameron announces the UK will have a public registry of the beneficial ownership of companies (taxresearch.org.uk)