Tens of thousands of businesses have still not made this important filing

The Patent and Registration Office (PRO) will remove from the Trade Register companies which have not filed information about their actual beneficial owners, in spite of reminders.

Last week, the PRO labelled the Trade Register entries of limited companies and cooperatives which have failed to file information about their beneficial owners following reminder letters.

If these companies do not register their beneficial owners by 20 November, they will be placed into liquidation or struck off the Trade Register.

The companies will be struck off in December 2024.

47,000 have not filed

The PRO has reminded companies about registering beneficial owners in numerous channels. However, the Trade Register continues to contain around 47,000 companies who have failed to make this statutory filing.

Under the Trade Register Act, all limited companies and cooperatives must submit information about their actual beneficial owners, that is, people with an ownership or controlling interest in the organization, to the Trade Register. However, public companies and mutual real estate companies are not required to submit this information.

The PRO has registered companies’ beneficial owner information since July 2019. The obligation to make a free beneficial owner filing and keep the information up to date concerns approximately 280,000 companies.

A company can be struck off the Trade Register or placed into liquidation pursuant to the Limited Liability Companies Act, the Cooperative Act, and the Trade Register Act.

If a company is struck off the Trade Register, it may appeal the decision to the Helsinki Administrative Court.

Read more about filing beneficial owner information on the PRO website.

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