Are you an Administrator or Trustee of an offshore structure which owns a company incorporated in the United Kingdom (UK)?

The Register of People with Significant Control – known as the PSC Register will, when it comes into effect from 1 April 2016, result in important changes that will require direct action on your part.

From 1 April 2016 companies incorporated in the UK will need to keep and maintain a new register that records all the people or legal entities that have “significant influence or control” over it, called a register of people with significant control or the PSC Register.

If your offshore structure contains a company incorporated in the UK then you should expect to be contacted by that company in the coming months and therefore be ready to supply certain information to them regarding any owners with significant control. Consequences of doing nothing will have a significant impact on your structure.

UK companies will be given powers under the new legislation to require people who do not have significant control, but may know about people or entities with significant control – such as Administrators or Trustees – to provide relevant information to the UK company directly. It is for this reason that such professionals should be alert to these changes as the obligation to notify is likely to be your responsibility.

If you receive such a communication and do not respond to such notice seeking information for the PSC Register, this will ultimately lead to restrictions being placed on your structure’s interest in the UK company, which could include the loss of voting and economic rights on the shares in the capital of the UK company until such position is rectified.

The time therefore to prepare for the PSC Register is now and your organisation should be taking proactive steps to be ready for this change.

For more detailed information about the new legislative changes, how it may affect your offshore business and what you should be doing to prepare for it, you can read the full article here.