In its capacity as the register authority, the Federal Ministry of Finance has provided information about the changes to the reporting of beneficial owners under the WiEReG in its Technical News 2024/02. These changes, which are based on the WiEReG Amendment 2023 (BGBL I 2023/97), enter into force on 1 July and concern reports transmitted to the register after 30 June 2024.
All reports submitted after this cut-off date must take the changes into account. A renewed submission of a report before the annual review falls due (§ 3(3) WiEReG) is not required. The updated WiEReG BMF decree is expected to be published in August; the BMF’s collection of case examples will be adapted to the new legal situation and published on the BMF’s website. For matters affected by the changes, the new reporting forms must be used from 1 July 2024, irrespective of whether the due diligence obligation under § 3 WiEReG is performed before or only after this cut-off date.
The most important changes that must be reflected using the new reporting forms are:
- disclosure of relevant trust relationships within the chain of ownership;
- the possibility of waiving the automatic transfer of data for domestic foundations and trusts as top-level legal entities;
- reporting of trust relationships in the case of foundations, trusts and comparable legal entities;
- statement of the proportion of assets contributed in the case of foundations, trusts and comparable legal entities;
- reporting of the insolvency administrator as subsidiary beneficial owner where no top management level exists.
The new reporting form for party representatives has already been available since 1 July 2024, in parallel operation in addition to the existing forms. It has been developed from the ground up.