South Africa is still on the greylist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Writing in Personal Finance, trust expert Phia van der Spuy reports that government must address six outstanding action items by February 2025, one of which relates to timely access to beneficial ownership information concerning companies and trusts.
The authorities have called upon all trustees and trust service providers to registered accurate beneficial ownership information with the CIPC and Masters Office, respectively, to help significantly increase the coverage in beneficial ownership registries, as well as to notify dormant and deregistered trusts. Failure to do so by 30 November 2024 will incur severe penalties.
As responsible citizens, all trustees should participate in the drive to identify deregistered and dormant trusts and submit beneficial ownership registers to the Master through their online portal. A general dedicated beneficial owner assistance email will also be accessible from the Master’s Portal if trustees and trust service providers get stuck.
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Phia van der Spuy is a Chartered Accountant with a Masters degree in tax and a registered Fiduciary Practitioner of South Africa®, a Chartered Tax Adviser, a Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP), and the founder of Trusteeze®, the provider of a digital trust solution.