The Luxembourg Business Register has given firms extra time to register their beneficial owners.
The original deadline was 31 August 2019 but companies will now have until 30 November 2019 to update and submit the relevant information.
The extension will not apply to companies incorporated after 1 March 2019, as they have a firm 30-day deadline to file their “ultimate beneficial owner declaration”, said Bertrand Géradin, partner at law firm Ogier in Luxembourg.
Entities that fail to comply or file incorrected or partial information will be face penalties ranging from €1,250 to €1.25m (£1.14m, $1.37m).
Failed to deliver
The European country is already way beyond the EU’s deadline set out in the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which required all member states to have central business ownership registers in place by June 2017.
Although nearly two years late, Luxembourg passed the register of beneficial owners law in January 2019, giving companies until 1 September 2019 to comply.
Any legal entity registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register, including common funds and foreign companies with branches in Luxembourg, must file their beneficial ownership information.
Companies, however, faced some practical issues and could not meet the original deadline, which caused the Business Register to grant the three-month extension.
