The required legislation has been passed but the challenge is getting the systems in place to gather and share beneficial ownership information and then to get compliance from all companies and trusts. We expect full compliance will take years as the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and the Masters’ Offices of the High Court have to pursue those who haven’t submitted returns or submitted incomplete ones. There is also no evidence of straightforward information sharing with investigatory authorities – we need to see the police and others actively using beneficial ownership information, and the CIPC/Masters’ Offices providing it, to build cases relating to fraud and other criminal activity.
Significant work has been done at the legislative level to put in place the required laws to capture beneficial ownership information on both companies and trusts. The relevant authorities – the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and the Master’s Office of the High Court – have both set up mechanisms to capture this information, though…
read more >>