Jayme Petra de Mello Neto
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
The Luxembourg Parliament passed a new law in January 2019 creating a central register of final beneficiaries of Luxembourg legal entities. This measure follows the EU requirements imposed by the European Union against money laundering (European Directive 2015/849 and European Directive 2018/843), creating an obligation for most entities to declare their activities.
Under the law, the ultimate beneficiary is the natural person who ultimately owns or controls the entity, or through whom a transaction is executed or an activity carried out. For Luxembourg law, one of the criteria for determining this condition is owning 25% or more of the quotas or shares of a company, although it is not the only one. In the event that it is not possible to identify a final beneficiary, or even uncertain about it, information on the main manager must be declared.
All companies must declare their final beneficiary, with a few exceptions, apart from cooperatives, investment funds, non-profit organizations, foundations and legal entities governed by public law. Luxembourg subsidiaries of foreign companies, including Brazilian ones, must declare.
Legal entities that fail to declare or provide inaccurate or outdated information to the authorities are subject to criminal sanctions, with fines of between 1,250 euros and 1,250,00 euros.
The law came into force on March 1, 2019, with a transition period of six months. Thus, the deadline for the declaration is August 31, 2019.
The law firm Marcos Martins Advogados Associados is at your disposal for any clarification or action regarding the above-mentioned obligations.
