Ensure that your company’s beneficial ownership is registered at the Swedish Companies registration Office
Beneficial ownership. Is your company’s beneficial ownership registered at the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket)? To combat money laundering, the European Parliament adopted a new directive in 2015 where most companies must notify the beneficial ownership. The law regulating this; The Act on the Registration of beneficial ownership (2017: 63) has been in force in Sweden since August 1 2017. Among companies we are in contact with, we occasionally note that there is still no registration of a beneficial ownership at the Swedish Companies Registration Office.
What does beneficial owner mean?
As the Swedish Companies Registration Office puts it, “a beneficial owner is someone who ultimately owns or controls a company, association, or other type of legal entity. A beneficial owner can also be someone who benefits from someone else acting on their behalf.".
Does your company need to report beneficial ownership?
The majority of Swedish companies, associations, and legal entities must register beneficial ownership information with the Swedish Companies Registration Office. This entails company forms such as limited companies, trading companies, and economic associations. Foreign companies and associations with operations in Sweden must follow the rules that apply to the corresponding Swedish legal entities.
Only the following entities do not need to register beneficial ownership:
- Estates of deceased or bankrupt persons
- Limited companies with voting shares admitted to trading on a regulated market, and subsidiaries thereof
- Non-profit associations which do not have any beneficial owners
- Simple partnerships
- Sole traders
- The state, county councils, and municipalities, as well as legal entities where these have a significant deciding role
- Foreign companies and associations domiciled in the European Economic Area (EEA) that have registered a real principal in another central register within the EEA
How to register beneficial ownership
It is easy to report or update beneficial ownership. You do this on the Swedish Companies Registration Office's website where you will find e-service and instructions on how to proceed. The information must be registered by an authorized signatory for the company or association and signed with a Swedish e-identification such as Mobile BankID. Please note that the e-service is only available in Swedish. You need to have access to basic information about the company and the owners for the registration.
If you would like Accountor to ensure that your company complies with the Act (2017: 63), registration of beneficial ownership, please contact your contact at Accountor or our Corporate services consultant, Jenny Rundgren at Advisory, Accountor, jenny.rundgren@accountor.se .
Do you find the Swedish rules and administration as well as accounting in your company cumbersome? Accountor can help you with all or parts of your accounting. Contact us and we will help you.
