Beneficial owners must be registered

The duty to register beneficial owners

In July 2018, the Danish Business Authority made a new rule making in impossible to start a business without registering all beneficial owners. In this moment, the Danish Business Authority are, therefore, sending out compulsory dissolution of the businesses whose beneficial owners aren't in the register.

Which legal entities are subject to the registration duty?

Overall, businesses, corporations and commercial foundations must register their beneficial owners.

In addition, certain associations must also register their real owners, especially employers' associations, trade unions and other professional associations with assets exceeding DKK 250,000.

Who must be registered?

Both legal and beneficial owners must be registered in the Danish CVR-register.

A legal owner is a person, who directly holds more than 5 % of the votes and/or shares in a legal entity. A legal owner can both be a natural or a legal person, for example a holding company.

A beneficial owner is a natural person, who ultimately, whether directly or indirectly, controls the legal entity. As a main rule, a natural person that holds 25 % or more of the shares and/or votes in the legal entity is considered a beneficial owner. If a natural person in other ways, for example through special voting rights, controls the legal entity, this person will also be considered beneficial owner.

If a legal entity has no beneficial owner, the management must be registered as beneficial owner in the CVR-register.

What does being registered as a legal or beneficial owner of a business involve?

Both legal and beneficial owners are to be registered in the Danish CVR-register with name and place of residence. This information is freely available unless the person has address protection.

Regardless of whether a person has address protection, he/she is required to provide the legal entity with a copy of his/her passport and address identification. This information must be retained by the legal entity throughout the ownership period and for an additional 5 years after the ownership has ended.

IUNO believes

IUNO believes, all businesses should register their beneficial owners because it is quite easy and can be quite expensive to reopen your business after it has been through a compulsory dissolution.

The businesses have to register their beneficial owners on www.virk.dk. If you have any other questions about this matter, you are always welcome to call or send a mail to IUNO.