Nicholas Metcalfe

The vast majority of companies are required to submit information on their beneficial owners to a new central register by Friday 22 November or risk significant fines.

However, only 21 per cent of companies have submitted information since the Beneficial Ownership Register opened for filing in July, according to recent figures.

Nick Metcalfe, corporate governance and compliance partner at Mason Hayes & Curran, said: “A beneficial owner, for the purposes of this legislation, is a natural person who directly or indirectly owns or controls over 25 per cent of a relevant entity, or who controls that entity by other means.

“If an entity cannot identify any persons who own a sufficient percentage or who exercise a sufficient level of control, then it must collate and submit information of its senior managing officials instead.

“Each body corporate to which the regulations apply is required to provide the gardaí, the Revenue, the Criminal Assets Bureau and other competent authorities with timely access to information on its internal register.

“The Irish authorities can then also share that information with corresponding authorities in other member states of the EU. Competent authorities in this regard include the Central Bank, the Law Society and the Bar Council, among others.”