Earlier this week, the Law amending the legislation published in July 2019 regarding the obligation of companies to declare who their real beneficiaries are, was published. The law will enter into force, today – July, 9th 2020.
In order to implement certain U.E. Directives on money laundering and terrorist financing, a new Law was published in July 2019 whereby the newly registered companies, but also all the existing companies, had the obligation to submit a Declaration on their own responsibility regarding the identity of their real beneficiaries.
For the companies already registered, this declaration had to be submitted within a maximum of 12 months, term which initially expired in July 2020, now being extended, as a result of pandemic, until November, 1st 2020.
These declarations had to be submitted annually, within 15 days of the approval of the financial statement, a provision which was criticized, as it brought excessive additional bureaucracy, provided that the identity of the beneficial owners did not change.
Fortunately, by the Law published this week, this obligation was eliminated, the Declaration being submitted only at registration or when the real beneficiaries change, within 15 days from the date on which the change occured. Therefore, the Declaration no longer has to be submitted annually as long as the real beneficiaries do not change.
At the same time, the obligation to submit the Declaration by the already registered companies, which are composed only from natural partners, who are the only real beneficiaries (for example an LLC with sole shareholder is not obliged to submit this Declaration) has been eliminated. In this case, O.N.R.C. will complete ex officio the Register of Real Beneficiaries.
