The Verkhovna Rada is Considering the Law on Electronic Submission of Information about Beneficiaries of Legal Entities

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi submitted to the Verkhovna Rada Bill No. 6320 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts Concerning the Simplification of Providing Information for the Purposes of Financial Monitoring” for consideration. The purpose of the Bill is to speed up and facilitate the procedure of submitting data about ultimate beneficial owners to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs.

Updated procedures for submitting information on the ultimate beneficial owner were introduced by Ukraine after the Verkhovna Rada had adopted a new version of Law № 361-IX “On Prevention and Counteraction to Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction”. These innovations were adopted within the framework of the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and introduction of the standards of the Financial Task Action Force (FATF) in the legislation of Ukraine.

Main Points of Submission Procedure

? Legal entities shall maintain information about the ultimate beneficial owner or its absence and ownership structure. They shall enter these data in the manner prescribed by the Law of Ukraine “On State Registration of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Associations”.

? Information on the ultimate beneficial owner and ownership structure is not provided during the state registration of a legal entity founded solely by natural persons who are considered its ultimate beneficial owners, unless they have provided information that the ultimate beneficial owners of such legal entity are other persons.

? Information on the ultimate beneficial owner and ownership structure must be up to date. In the event of amendments, changes shall be notified within 30 working days from the date of such changes, and in the event of errors, corrected information shall be provided within the period of no more than three working days.

? Starting from the next year from the date of state registration of the legal entity, within 14 calendar days, legal entities are required to submit data on the ultimate beneficial owner in the form of an annual application.

? When a legal entity submits information about a person who is the ultimate beneficial owner of a legal entity, the state registrar shall verify the information about the owner, using information from the State Civil Acts Register, Unified State Demographic Register, State Register of Individual Taxpayers, etc.

? Automated verification will be carried out by means of the Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services.

? It is possible to automatically compare the information provided by companies with the data of state registers instead of checking paper documents manually. It is planned to remove the requirement of notarization of copies of documents certifying the identity of the beneficiary.

Information about the Beneficial Owner to Be Provided

• last name, first name, patronymic (if any),
• date of birth,
• country of citizenship, and if the ultimate beneficial owner is a citizen of several countries – all countries of their citizenship,
• series (if available) and number of the document (documents) which identifies (identify) the person and confirms (confirm) citizenship,
• place of residence,
• registration number of the taxpayer’s registration card (if any),
• full name, location and identification code (for a resident) of the founder of the legal entity, in which this person is the ultimate beneficial owner,
• nature and extent (level, degree, share) of beneficial ownership (benefits, interests, influence).

Additionally, the Bill provides for the preparation and approval by the responsible authority of a detailed methodology for determining the ultimate beneficiary for legal entities and conducting appropriate explanatory work. Legal entities will have six months to submit data on their beneficial owners under the new rules (thus, the one-year period currently set by Law № 361-IX will be reduced).

Sources:

https://www.president.gov.ua/news/prezident–iniciyuvav–elektronne–podannya–kompaniyami–informa-71609

http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=73227

Read more:

Ukraine Has Approved the Procedure for Preliminary Approval of Transfer Pricing https://kac.com.ua/en/novosti/ukraina-utverdila-poryadok-predvaritelnogo-soglasovaniya-transfertnogo-tsenoobrazovaniya/

FATF Recommendation on Beneficial Ownership Information Revised https://kac.com.ua/en/novosti/peresmotrena-rekomendatsiya-fatf-po-informatsii-o-benefitsiarnom-vladenii/