Mandatory submission of information about participants and beneficiaries

LEGAL DIGEST, NEWS \ 24.05.2021

The State Duma of the Russian Federation has adopted a Law according to which foreign companies and foreign structures are required to submit information about their founders to the tax authorities.

According to the amendments, foreign companies, as well as foreign structures without forming a legal entity, will have to submit the following information to the tax inspectorate at the place of registration:

• about the participants of such foreign organizations;
• about the founders, beneficiaries, and managers (for a foreign structure).

The new requirements are not applied to foreign companies that are registered with the tax authority only on the basis of their provision of services in electronic form when they are implemented in the Russian Federation

If a foreign organization (foreign structure) is registered with different inspectorates, then information about the founders is sent to the tax authority that the organization (structure) has chosen.

Information about the participants (founders, beneficiaries, managers) has to be formed as of December 31 of the year preceding the year of submission of information. The deadline for submitting information is not later than March 28 of each year. 

Since the Law comes into force on January 1, 2022, for the first time, foreign companies and foreign structures will have to submit information about their founders not later than March 28, 2022, as of December 31, 2021.

Currently, foreign organizations (foreign structures) have to report information about the founders in cases where they have the right to own real estate objects that are recognized as the object of taxation on the assets of organizations. And the fine for failure to submit or late submission of information is 100% of the amount of tax on the assets of organizations.

Illegal failure to submit or late submission of information about the founders of a foreign company (structure) will entail a fine of 50,000 rubles.

We remind you that the beneficial owner of a legal entity is an individual who:

• directly or indirectly owns a legal entity;
• has the ability to control its actions.

Legal entities are required to have information about their beneficiaries, as it can be useful for the purposes of correct taxation.

Acsour carefully monitors these changes and is ready to advise you in the matters of the providision of information about the beneficial owners.