Extension of deadline for beneficiary declarations

Deadline for declaring beneficial owners extended to November 30, 2019.

The Luxembourg Business Register (the “LBR”), the economic interest grouping that manages the Register of Beneficial Owners (the “RBE”), announced at the end of August that the administrative deadline for registered entities to file declarations concerning their beneficial owner(s) has been extended to November 30, 2019.

Indeed, as of August 26, only 39% of registered entities had filed their declarations, up from 5.5% on May 31, 2019. However, this was still not enough, which is why the LBR officially decided to extend the reporting deadline.

As this is a purely administrative extension, entities that declare their beneficial owners within this extended deadline do not, per se, comply with the legal deadline of August 31, 2019 set out in the RBE Act of January 13, 2019. This law provides for a criminal penalty for entities that have not declared their beneficial owner(s) by August 31, 2019. However, it is reasonable to assume that such an extension will not have a negative impact on the entities required to file their declarations.

Finally, it should be noted that declarations made up to November 30, 2019 will remain free of charge.