Companies will have time until the end of September to register their Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBO’s) in the Belgian UBO register. This register is a central database with the natural persons who have an important participation in various legal entities, such as companies, non-profit organizations, foundations and partnerships.

The initial deadline of 30 November 2018 had already been extended to 31 March 2019 by the FPS Finance. Taken into account the many uncertainties regarding the UBO legislation and the fact that the online UBO application is still not fully operational, this extension has proven to be insufficient. Therefore, a new deadline for the first registration to the UBO register has been set.

This new deadline of 30 September 2019 provides the Belgian-based legal entities with more breathing space to take the necessary steps and to comply with the obligations under the UBO register.

The legislation regarding the UBO register imposes an additional obligation on legal entities, which entails some additional research by these entities in order to determine their UBO‘s and gather the necessary information. Whereas this will be a simple and straightforward exercise for some legal entities, others may require legal assistance in this regard. We are of course available to assist you in this matter.

If you should have any further questions, please reach out to your EY Law contact person or contact Peter Suykens (peter.suykens@be.ey.com) or Michaël Pollet (michael.pollet@be.ey.com)