Thank you for this information, it's worth to know for everyone reading this thread.
Do you speak from personal experience or just general tax regulation rules in Malta?
Here is the quoted text I was speaking about. I have added some underlining myself. This quote is from the website of a company that is a registered service provider and audit company in Malta.
It includes the text of compliance letter from MBR. Their website says:
"After the political changes at the end of 2019, theMaltese government tried to preserve the good reputation of the country and managed to get Malta out of the FATF grey list within record time. However, they introduced an enormous level of compliance administration. Since then, companies and service providers have to report to several government units that are not coordinated and all of them carry out inspections.
A good example is the Malta Business Registry. They are entitled to register companies, but also to publish the Annual Accounts and to run the Beneficial Ownership Register. However, Malta Business Registry also carries out hundreds of inspections, where they ask to provide within a week a lot of documents that had not been required at the formation stage.
As a licensed service provider,
we recommend to all clients to study the list and to have all these required documents prepared from the very beginning, it is just a few “funny” hours of effort and the ready documentation can be handed over whenever the authority ask for it. As stated above, we always recommend clients not to use director services, nominees, fiduciaries or trusts, therefore many points on the list are not applicable and the few additional papers are easy to create.
Here is what the head of the compliance unit of MBR writes in a standard letter:
“"…..The inspection is being conducted in accordance with Regulation 12 of the Companies Act (Register of Beneficial Owners) Regulation (herein after referred to as the BO regulations) and is designed to review the extent to which the company is complying with Regulations 5 and 6 of the BO Regulations. In this regard you are being requested to send via email to …… the documentation listed below, to enable us to confirm each layer in the structure of ownership of the company, including the minority shareholders. Kindly note that the applicable documentation needs to be provided for all past and present Beneficial Owners / Senior Managing Officials indicated in the BO Forms submitted from 2018 onwards.
A. Documentation required for the Company:
- Organigram / group structure detailing all layers and beneficial ownership interest
- Entity organizational chart certified as true and correct by a director/s vested with legal responsibility (to be submitted only when SMO/s are reported in the BO forms)
- Brief overview of nature of business entity
- Beneficial Owners Register
- Resolution / Minutes of the Shareholders and Directors meetings
- Any Dividend Warrants
- Details of banking arrangements held by entity including name of bank, facilities held and authorized bank representatives and signatories
- Copy of Passport / ID Card of the Beneficial Owners /Senior Managing Officials
- Details of multiple citizenship that may be held by a BO
- Curriculum Vitae / Resume of Beneficial Owners / Senior Managing Officials
- Declarations by the Beneficial Owners / Senior Managing Officials (if any)
B. Documentation required for each layer in the structure of ownership (including the Company)
- Register of Members
- Share Certificates
- Share Register
- Memorandum & Articles of Association (or equivalent)
- Share transfer agreements (if any)
- Agreements with the beneficial owners / Senior Managing Officials (Service agreement and / or Fiduciary agreement or Trust Deed (in case there is a Trust)
- Fiduciary declarations (in case the sample includes a fiduciary relationship)
- In case of Trusts, any “letter of wishes” which might be in place
- Certificates of incorporation
- Details of any powers of attorney issued
- Details of bearer shares or promise of sale agreements (for shares) in existence
- Where no bearer shares exist, a declaration from the director/s vested with legal responsibility
- Any other document which verifies the links between the indirect companies and the beneficial owners / Senior Managing Officials and for all the shareholders.
Kindly send these documents via email, but not later than (date within a week). In case the requested documents are not received by the MBR officials till the deadline date given, a penalty of 10.000 Euro will be imposed against the company without any further notice. Please do not hesitate to contact …. ”"
== End of quoted text ==
Hope this info helps people considering Malta - better to be prepared if possible it seems.
