Adding supporting documents to the UBO register: deadline until 31 August
June 2021 – The UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner) register was introduced in Belgium, as in all other EU Member States, in 2017. Since 30 September 2019, you are therefore obliged to make public certain information about these beneficial owners. A Royal Decree was published on 1 October 2020 which imposes additional requirements regarding the quality of this information. The deadline set by this decree has been extended from 30 April to 31 August 2021.
Purpose of the UBO register
The purpose of the UBO legislation is to control who is behind a company in the context of anti-money laundering legislation. It aims to prevent the use of shell companies.
This legislation was amended somewhat in 2020. One of the amendments concerned the obligation for information providers that are trusts, fiduciaries and similar legal arrangements to "provide any documentation demonstrating that the information contained in the register is adequate, accurate and up-to-date". The aim is to ensure that access by the competent person is effective. The person responsible for providing information had until 30 April 2021 to enter such documentary evidence into the system.
Postponement
At the beginning of April, the FPS Finance announced that the deadline had been extended to 31 August 2021. There are two reasons for this postponement.
Firstly, the FAQ that you can consult on the FPS Finance website (https://finances.belgium.be/fr/E-services/ubo-register) contained a number of inaccuracies, among others concerning the definition of the notion of "beneficiary" in certain specific situations and concerning the entities exempted from registering their UBOs. The information that is visible to all users (for most of the information you have to prove that you have an interest in seeing the information) is also clarified.
Secondly, the application is also made more user-friendly. It is now easier to add documents, for example, through a direct link to publications in the Belgian Official Journal. The database is also linked to the eStox database (the electronic share register of the Federation of Notaries) and to the database of the ITAA (Institute for Tax Advisors and Accountants). This makes it possible to link electronic share registers to the UBO register.
From 1 September 2021, legal entities (companies and associations) that have not uploaded the required information to the register will be subject to sanctions.
