Company beneficial ownership rules confirmed by BIS

The government’s response to a consultation on new rules for companies has been published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Company beneficial ownership information that sets out a record of a ‘person with significant control’ (PSC) will need to be registered when new legislation is announced later this month.

PSC register

From 6^th April 2016, some companies will need to hold a PSC register, the details of which will have to be sent to Companies House each year with their confirmation statement (the new replacement for the annual return).

After 30^th June 2016, companies will need to supply the PSC information as part of the incorporation process.

BIS confirmed that each request for a copy of a company’s PSC register or any part of it, regardless of how many parts are required, will be subject to a fixed fee of £12 per request.

New law

The People with Significant Control regulations will go before Parliament later this month, and the government has signalled its intention that the PSC regime will also apply to LLPs as well as limited companies.

The consultation on the new measures closed in July 2015 and looked at a range of issues surrounding the implementation of the new laws.

Some UK companies will be exempt from having to maintain a PSC register if they have voting shares on various markets, including a regulated market in an EEA state and certain markets in Japan, the US, Switzerland and Israel.