The Central Register of Beneficial Owners

What is the Central Register of Beneficial Owners?

Central Register of beneficial owners of the entity was created to implement Directive (EU) 2015/849 — prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing and to help to identify who ultimately owns or controls a company.

Every :

1. general partnership,

2. limited partnership,

3. limited joint-stock partnership,

4. limited liability companies,

5. joint- stock companies except for public companies

should register beneficial owners in Central Register until June 13, 2020.

You can resister beneficial owners by https://crbr.podatki.gov.pl/adcrbr/#/

What is the penalty for not registering beneficial owners?

The person acting on behalf of an obliged institution is liable for damage caused by reporting false data to the Central Register of Beneficial Owners, as well as failure to report data within the statutory deadline. The penalty imposed on the managing person responsible for reporting the beneficial owner may take the form of a fine of up to PLN 1,000,000.

The company itself for failure to report data or for reporting false data may be fined up to PLN 1,000,000 or an order to cease certain activities.

Who is the beneficial owner?

Beneficial owner shall be understood as a natural person or natural persons controlling directly or indirectly a customer through their rights that arise from legal or factual circumstances and enable them to exert decisive influence on the actions or activities undertaken by the customer, or a natural person or natural persons on whose behalf a business relationship is established or an occasional transaction is conducted, including:

a) in the case of a customer being a legal person other than a company whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market that is subject to information disclosure requirements arising from European Union legislation or to the corresponding legislation of a third country:

– a natural person being a shareholder in the customer, having the right of ownership of more than 25% of the total number of shares in that legal person,

– a natural person having more than 25% of the total number of votes in the decision-making body of the customer, also as a pledgee or user or on the basis of arrangements with other persons having voting rights,

– a natural person exercising control over a legal person or legal persons that jointly have the right of ownership of more than 25% of the total number of shares in the customer, or jointly having more than 25% of the total number of votes in a body of the customer, also as a pledgee or user or on the basis of arrangements with other persons having voting rights,

– a natural person controlling a customer through the rights referred to in Article 3.1 (37) of the Accounting Act of 29 September 1994 (Dziennik Ustaw 2019, items 351, 1495, 1571, 1655 and 1680 and of 2020, item 568) that it has in respect of that legal person, or

– a natural person holding a senior managerial position, in the case of a documented lack of the capability to determine or doubts as to the identity of the natural persons specified in the first, second, third, and fourth indents and in the case of no suspicions of money laundering or terrorist financing having been identified,

b) in the case of a customer being a trust:

– a settlor,

– a trustee,

– a protector, if any has been appointed,

– a beneficiary,

– any other person exercising control over the trust,

c) in the case of a customer being a natural person conducting economic activity, in respect of whom no grounds or circumstances have been identified that could indicate that another natural person or other natural persons exercise control over that customer, it is assumed that such a customer is at the same time the beneficial owner.

Identification of the beneficial owner includes determination:

1. Name and surname,

2. Nationality,

3. the Personal Identification Number (PESEL) or the date of birth-where no PESEL number has been assigned, and the country of birth,

4. the series and number of a document evidencing the person's identity,

5. the place of residence-if the obliged institution has this information,

6. the business name, the tax identification number (NIP), and the address of the principal place of business-in the case of a natural person conducting economic activity.

If you have any difficulties with identifying beneficial owners of your company contact us through the form on our website.