The Grand-Ducal Regulation of 15 February 2019 on the registration, payment of administrative fees and access to information recorded in the register of beneficial owners (the “RBE Regulation”) entered into force on 1 March 2019 and depicts the practical aspects of the Law of 13 January 2019 establishing a beneficial owner register (the “RBE Law”). Another document, the LBR Circular 19/01 (the “Circular”) issued by the Luxembourg Business Registers on 25 February 2019 further describes the new register of beneficial owners (the “RBE”) with the aim of helping users.
The RBE Regulation describes for example the supporting documents, which will need to be provided to the manager of the RBE (i.e. the Luxembourg Business Registers) in certain circumstances when a beneficial owner is recorded. These are:
the copy of an official document allowing the identification of each beneficial owner (i.e. identity card, passport, etc.) who does not have a Luxembourg national identification number; such official identification document shall be translated into French, German or Luxembourgish if it is not written in Latin characters. If the beneficial owner has a Luxembourg national identification number, no identity document is required;
the document certifying that the entity is a company whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market; and
the duly motivated request in case of a risk justifying the limited access to the information concerning the beneficial owner(s) (article 15 of the RBE Law).
The RBE Regulation further provides a tariff grid, said tariff grid being applicable as from the end of the transitory period to record the beneficial owners of the existing entities (i.e. 1 September 2019).
The web portal dedicated to the RBE is available as of 1 March 2019 and the new declarations can now be filed (for free until 31 August 2019).
The data on the beneficial owners and the order of excerpts of the RBE will be available on 1 September 2019. The search will be done via the Register of Commerce and Companies number of the Luxembourg company or its name. The public has free access to the RBE.
A brochure will be published by the Luxembourg Business Registers on their website in the coming weeks and will provide illustrative examples of various structures to help Luxembourg companies with the identification of their beneficial owners.
