As part of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, almost all companies and LLPs from 6 April 2016 will have to maintain a PSC (People with Significant Control) register to identify beneficial owners to improve transparency by UK entities. This information will need to be filed publically at Companies House from 30 June 2016 as part of the new confirmation statement which replaces the current annual return.
A PSC is anyone who meets one or more of the following conditions:
- owns more than 25% of the company’s shares (or holds rights over more than 25% of the surplus assets on a winding up in the case of LLPs)
- holds more than 25% of the voting rights
- holds the right to appoint or remove the majority of directors
- otherwise has the right to exercise significant influence or control
- holds the right to exercise, or actually exercises significant influence or control over the activities of a trust or firm which has significant control (under one of the four conditions above) over the company or LLP
The following details of the PSC should be held in the register:
- name
- nationality
- country, state (or part of the UK) where the PSC usually lives
- service address – usually the Registered Office
- date when the individual became a PSC
- which of the five conditions the PSC meets
- date of birth (this information is not made public)
- residential address (this information is not made public)
If we already help you with your annual return filing, we will be in contact in due course, but if you have any questions or we can help you with the PSC register or any other statutory filings, please do not hesitate to contact your usual Beavis Morgan partner, or the BM Cosec team, Jeremy Rogers or Sara Costigan