The deadline of 31 January 2023, for the registration of overseas entities with property interests in the UK, with Companies House has now past. An estimated 13,000 relevant overseas entities had not registered by the deadline, approximately 40% of the total.
Considerable work needs to be committed to the verification process, before an application for registration can be made.
In addition, overseas entities that owned a qualifying estate on February 28, 2022 and have subsequently disposed of their interest, are also caught by the rules.
Following the introduction of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) 2022 Act (“ECTE ACT”) which came into force on 01 August 2022 the UK Government is now seeking further measures with the introduction of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill which is already past Committee stage in the House of Commons. The register of overseas entities will be amended to maintain consistency with changes intended to the Companies Act 2006. Amongst the other far reaching and significant changes intended by the Bill are:
- reforms to Companies House including the introduction of identity verification for all new and existing registered company directors
- reforms to prevent the abuse of limited partnerships by tightening registration requirements and increasing transparency
- additional powers to seize and recover suspected criminal cryptoassets by boosting criminal confiscation powers
- reforms to give businesses more confidence to share information in order to tackle money laundering and other economic crime
- new intelligence gathering powers for law enforcement and removal of nugatory burdens on business.
If you have any questions or think you may need to register your overseas entity, please get in touch with Ben Habershon at: hello@dixcartuk.com.
For further information please see our previous article here
See also: https://companieshouse.blog.gov.uk/2022 and https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3339
