Central Registry of the Beneficial Owner

This obligation applies to Portugal. According to the law nº 89/2017 and the ordinance nº 233/2018, of 21st of August was implemented the Central Registry of the Beneficial Owner (CRBO). What is the CRBO? The CRBO is a data base with accurate and updated information about the persons, that directly or indirectly, have some control or ownership of the enterprise (beneficial owner). What’s the purpose of this obligation? This data base has the purpose of reinforcing the transparency on the commercial relationships and to prevent and fight of money laundering. Who is obligated? The obligated entities are: -Societies -Associations -Cooperatives -Representations of entities that aren’t resident, among others; To summarize: every entity that have activities or business that have VAT. Who can proceed with the communication? Thru the citizen card’s authentication or the mobile digital key: -Managers/ administrators; -Lawyers; -Notaries; -Solicitors; In the future, the Certificated Accountants could also be able to make the procedure. Who is the beneficial owner? It is the individual who directly or indirectly controls, through ownership of the stakes or other means, defined in law 83/2017, of August 18, a company, association, foundation, business entity, among others. Which are the examples of company control indicators? -Ownership of 25% of share capital, thru stakes or vote right; -Special rights that allow the entity control; -In special cases: top managers; What’s the deadline to communicate? In the case of the entities that are incorporated before the 1st of October of 2018, the registration should be done until 30th of April of 2018; in the case of entities incorporated after that date have 30 days after to proceed with the registration. How to update the information? Every time that exists any change on the information that concerns the entity or the owners, they must be communicated on a deadline of 30 days counting from the day that those changes occurred. However, since 2020, the update will be done until 15th of July of every year. The non-compliance of the duties prescribed in the diploma by the entities subject to the RCBE may constitute a counter-order punishable by a fine that goes from 1.000,00 EUR up to 50.000,00 EUR.   Who manages the data base? The entity responsible for the CRBO is the Institute of Registries and Notaries. The declarative obligation should be executed thru the link: https://rcbe.justica.gov.pt/. This publication is purely informative and does not dispense with the consultation of the applicable legislation.