Foreign companies owning real estate in the UK are demanded to register in the proper register in 2021
At the end of July 2018, a draft law on the registration of foreign companies was published in the UK (hereinafter - the Law). The purpose of this Law is to maintain a register of foreign companies since 2021 that own real estate in the UK. This Law is a “continuation” of the legislation on “persons with significant control”, which was introduced for UK companies in 2016. New requirements for foreign companies are aimed at combating the use of property located in the UK, for the purpose of laundering money obtained by criminal means. It is planned that the requirement for foreign companies to enter data on their final beneficiaries into a special register will allow to control the use of property for illegal purposes. It should be noted that the obligation to register will be entrusted not only to companies, but also to partnerships, governments and any other types of legal entities that are legally competent under their domestic law. So, companies can have privileges under certain circumstances, in particular, regarding how “transparent” they are already (here it concerns the companies which shares are quoted on stock exchanges). In the event that it is...