Registration Of Non-Resident Trusts on the Irish Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of Trust

A Revenue approved concessional period for non-resident Trustees has now ended, sparking a flurry of activity as the Trustees of UK or non-EU trusts with an Irish connection scramble to meet updated Irish Revenue regulations.

The 4^th and 5^th Anti-Money Laundering EU Directives imposed obligations on each member state to establish a Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of Trust or CRBOT, as it is commonly known. The EU Directive was transposed into Irish law on the 23^rd April 2021. The purpose of the legislation is to identify who owns and controls Trusts, with a view to preventing money laundering and terrorism.

Any Trust established after the 23^rd April 2021 must be registered within 6 months from the date of establishment. Until recently, the Irish Revenue Commissioners recognised the particular challenges faced by UK Trustees in registering trust details on CRBOT and as a result, had offered UK Trustees a concessional grace period within which to comply with these obligations.

In March of this year, it became compulsory to register all beneficial ownership interests in such non-resident trusts with the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of Trusts.

Registration is required where:

• A trustee enters into a business relationship in the State on behalf of the trust.

OR

• A trustee acquires land, a house or other real property in the State in the name of the trust.

The edict from Revenue has apparently taken some trustees by surprise, possibly because they did not expect their particular trust to be caught by the legislation. For instance, if a British or non-EU trust has an existing life policy with an Irish provider, they are required to register with CRBOT.

The term “business relationship” has been defined by Revenue as any business, professional or commercial relationship between a designated person for anti-money laundering purposes and their customer where the relationship is expected to be ongoing.

The registration process involves pulling together a wide range of information on all of the beneficial owners of the trusts.

The beneficial owners include, the settlor who placed the assets into the Trust in the first place, possibly years ago; the Trustees who are managing the Trust; the beneficiaries or any class of beneficiary; and where relevant, the Protector. A Protector is an independent person who has oversight, monitoring, and control over the Trust and its Trustees. If any one person occupies more than one role they must be entered on the register in each capacity.

A formal photo identification in the form of a passport or national identity card has to be uploaded for each beneficial owner.

The person completing the registration is known as “a Presenter” and can be one of the trustees or a solicitor acting on behalf of all of the trustees.

The Presenter is required to provide:

1. The Trust details, such as the name and type of trust;
2. Their own address and contact details;
3. The portal then provides for the verification of the Presenter’s email address;
4. The Presenter is then required to upload a completed beneficial ownership details form, which includes details of all beneficial owners together with other supporting documents including the proof of identity for all beneficial owners; and
5. Finally, the Presenter is required to submit a formal authority, signed by the Trustees, authorising their role as agent for the Trustee/Trustees.

If a company occupies one of the beneficial owner roles, then the company details also need to be registered. The Presenter is required to confirm the type of beneficial owner the company is, its legal name as well as whether or not the company is already registered in a central register in another EU country. If it is, it is necessary to provide the filing reference,  the name of that register and its address together with the date of registration.

There are certain arrangements where registration on CRBOT is not necessary and these include approved occupational pension schemes or retirement funds, approved profit-sharing schemes or employee share ownership trusts.

Next Steps

For anyone wondering if their trust should be registered with CRBOT, queries should be sent to NonResCRBOT@revenue.ie or contact our private client team at BHSM LLP. We would be delighted to provide assistance and advise to you in relation to the registration of your non-resident trust on CRBOT.

Trea McGuinness (tmcguinness@bhsm.ie)

Grainne Cunningham (gcunningham@bhsm.ie)

This article is for general information purposes.  Legal advice must be obtained for individual circumstances.  Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this article, no liability is accepted by the author for any inaccuracies.