E.U. Company where Director is not public

[Brobbel]

Hello,

I would like to set up a company within the European Union, such as a LTD in Ireland (or UK, even though not E.U. anymore) but where the director / owner is not shown in a online register (such with UK.)

Do you know any company formation in the E.U. where the director is not public?

If there does not exist any, do I really need to setup a US LLC as only alternative?

 

[Sols]

Generally speaking, no, not since the latest iterations of the EU AML Directives which have mandated UBO registers across the union.

There is privacy to varying degrees in for example Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Latvia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and – if we extend the definition of EU a bit – Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the likes of Gibraltar and Isle of Man. Neither is fully private so see if they fit your requirements. Sometimes the privacy is by law, sometimes by difficulty of using the online services, or because the information is behind a paywall (normally about 5 - 10 EUR). However, I wouldn't rely on this long term. UBO registers are already in place (except for Switzerland) and EU wants them to become public.

For now, the easiest is probably a Cyprus company with nominee shareholders and professional directors, since they do not intend on making their UBO register fully public – at least not right away.

 

[Martin Everson]

Yes under the 4th AML EU Directive most of that info has to be made public. Some registers charge a fee to access it but in EU don't expect privacy any longer in corporate affairs. Also expect long term this info to be propagated by EU to other countries via OECD forcing them to follow its lead.

You can find a list of registers of EU states here

https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2018/07/gls-transparency-register-web.pdf

 

[neweraoffshore]

Shouldn't the public UBO register be finished until March this year ?! I somewhen posted the deadline somwhere as I remember, but right now I can just see that various jurisdiction in Europe set their deadline to 15/16 of March.
So guess it should be already done or with some tiny delays.
5th Anti Money Laundering Directive ((EU 2018/843) Law 13(I)/2021)) killed it for ALL countries in the EU. So no need to search for any jurisdiction within the EU anymore.

 

[Sols]

Not all UBO registers are created equal. Some are not public and only for interested parties, which in turn are defined differently such as meaning only law enforcement or government officials.

The long-term goal is clear but there is still nuance for a little while longer.

 

[tacokai]

The long-term goal is clear but there is still nuance for a little while longer.

what would that mean?

 

[Sols]

what would that mean?

Full transparency (at least towards government/law enforcement) is the goal. We'll get there eventually. In the meantime, there will be exceptions or places where it's tedious/difficult to get the data out.

 

[EliasIT]

You best chance to get fully anonymity is as discussed in the mentor group gold already a dozen times. You can find some countries like Cyprus which allow nominees to be appointed, I'm just not sure if they still protect the privacy of UBO! Maybe @CyprusLaw , @CyprusLawyer101 or @CyprusBusiness could shed some light on that part?

 

[myhand]

It is impossible to do, but if you appoint a nominee director you don't need to worry about your name figuring anywhere. Just be informed, once your name is out there it will never vanish from google hits.