In brief - Beneficial ownership toolkit aims to help
governments implement legal and supervisory frameworks to identify
and collect beneficial ownership information
Beneficial ownership is a critical issue in many areas of law,
in particular tax and anti-money laundering. National authorities
often struggle to keep up with private ingenuity in this area.
Recent data leaks have revealed the use of companies and trusts
to hide the beneficial owners of assets and have highlighted the
key role that transparency of ownership information can play in
preventing tax evasion, corruption, money laundering and other
related activities.
International standards require minimum levels of transparency
concerning the beneficial owners of companies, trusts and other
legal arrangements for tax as well as money-laundering
purposes.
