UK and EU states call for rapid access to global beneficial ownership register
The UK has joined forces with 19 European countries and the British overseas territories of Anguilla and Montserrat in the Caribbean, to issue a joint statement callng for rapid adoption of the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information
The statement calls for firm collective action on increasing beneficial ownership transparency to improve transparency.
As part of the new measures, primarily focusing on company ownership details, which are still to be enacted in European law once debated and approved by MEPs in the European parliament, the signatories to the statement will set their tax and law enforcement agencies exchanging data on company beneficial ownership registers and new registers of trusts.
The UK government claims this will allow more effective investigation of financial wrongdoing and aggressive tax avoidance, which contravenes acceptable tax planning guidelines.
The countries have set out a series of actions, including calls for:
- non-comforming EU member states, countries and jurisdictions to commit to establishing registers requiring that beneficial owners of companies, trusts, foundations, shell companies and other relevant entities and arrangements are identified and available for tax administration and law enforcement authorities;
- all jurisdictions to rapidly implement the Common Reporting Standard (CRS);
- the rapid establishment of a global standard on the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information; and
- the development of a system of interlinked registries containing full beneficial ownership information and for common international standards for these registries and their interlinking.
The statement was issued jointly by the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Finland, Croatia, Belgium, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, Slovenia, Denmark, Malta, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Bulgaria, Estonia, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Austria and Hungary, as well as Montserrat and Anguilla in the Caribbean.
Source: CCHDaily
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