Background
Due to the new transparency register, almost all companies in
Germany are obliged now to register specific information about
their Beneficial Owner(s). This obligation should be taken
seriously because failure to register is punishable by high
fines.
In Germany, the Transparency Register and Financial Information
Act" (TraFinG) came into force on August 1, 2021 as the
implementation of EU Directive 2015/849 of May 20, 2015 and EU
Directive 2018/843 of May 30, 2018. Since this date, at least in
Germany, all companies subject to registration are obliged to
identify their Beneficial Owner(s) and declare it/ them to the
transparency register. Previously the transparency register
was merely a register that obtained its information from other
registers, so that most of German registered companies could avoid
a registration. This has now changed completely! All German
companies need to be registered in the transparency register as it
has become a complete
