04/09/19

LUXEMBOURG: Extension for Beneficial Ownership.

As published on internationalinvestment.net, Tuesday September 3, 2019.

Luxembourg has postponed the deadline for registration of company beneficial ownership from 31 August to 30 November 2019 as more than 129,000 companies failed to say who their beneficial owners are.

The register, which forms part of a raft of EU measures to combat money laundering, entered into operation in Luxembourg on 1 March 2019. A week before the initial deadline, 61% of Luxembourg entities - equivalent to more than 129,000 - had yet to complete their paperwork for registration.

At the end of June, justice minister Félix Braz launched a campaign aimed at encouraging all beneficiaries to declare themselves before the deadline, in particular non-profit organisations that are not used to complying with the growing regulatory obligations in the financial sector, such as banks and funds.

The jurisdiction is already far beyond the deadline set by Article 30 of the EU Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD), which required all EU Member States to implement central registers of beneficial ownership by June 2017.

Entities which fail to complete a declaration could incur a fine ranging from €1,250 to €1.25m. The same applies to entities which do not report a chance in beneficial ownership within 30 days.