Central Register of Beneficial Owners

On 13 October 2019, the Central Register of Beneficial Owners (CRBO) will start to operate. From this date on, the existing entities will have 6 months to fulfil their statutory reporting obligations.

CRBO is an ICT system to be used to process information about beneficial owners of companies and partnerships. The register will be public. The procedure for filing notifications to the register has been laid down by the Minister of Finance in the Regulation of 16 May 2018 and, according to it, notifications will be submitted through a link on the Public Information Bulletin’s  website for the Ministry of Finance.

The act defines the beneficial owner as:

• a natural person or persons directly or indirectly exercising control over the client through the rights held, where such control may arise from legal or factual circumstances and is to enable to exert decisive influence on the actions and steps taken by the client

or

• a natural person or persons on whose behalf business relations are established or the so-called occasional transaction is executed.

Entities obliged to submit and update information about beneficial owners will include:

• general partnerships,
• limited partnerships,
• limited joint-stock partnerships,
• limited liability companies,
• joint-stock companies, except for public companies within the meaning of the Act on public offering, conditions governing the introduction of financial instruments to organised trading and public companies of 29 July 2005.

The submitted information will include identification details of the above companies, such as:

• name (business name),
• legal form,
• registered seat,
• number in the National Court Register,
• Tax Identification Number (NIP),
• identification details of the beneficial owner and member of the governing body or partner authorised to represent such entities (name and surname, nationality, country of residence, Personal Identification Number (PESEL) or, if not available, the date of birth).

Persons responsible for the submission of the required identification details to the register, will be the persons authorized to represent an entity.

Such information should be submitted to the register free of charge by means of electronic communication, not later than within 7 days from company’s entry in the National Court Register, and in the case of a change of already provided information – within 7 days from the change.

Entities already entered in the National Court Register at the time of register opening will be obliged to submit the required information within 6 months following the effective date of the regulations concerning the register (namely until 13 April 2020).

The notification will have to include a statement of the person submitting information to the register on its being true and correct. The person submitting information about beneficial owners will be liable for damage caused as a result of provision of false data. Entities obliged to submit information which fail to perform this obligation within the statutory time limit may be subject to a fine of up to PLN 1,000,000.

The procedure for filing requests to provide information on beneficial owners has been laid down by the Minister of Finance in a separate Regulation of 16 May 2018 which will come into force on 13 October 2019. Information about beneficial owners collected in the register will be made available free of charge.

How can we help?

Areas where we can support you:

• identification of reporting obligations,
• determination (on our own or in cooperation with client) of entities subject to notification,
• drafting notification to CRBO.