Suche
Mein Konto
Quite practical: Owner, please let us know!
Dominik Leiter, lawyer and partner at Weisenheimer Legal in Vienna, gives useful legal tips for practice in the automotive industry. This time he explains what lies behind the awkward abbreviation “WiEReG”.
Quite practical: Owner, please let us know!
In the meantime, the somewhat awkward abbreviation “WiEReG” and the existence of the “Beneficial Owners Register Act” referred to by it have hopefully been burned into the minds of all those affected. Due to some changes to the WiEReG last year and this year, this article is intended to provide anyone interested with a brief overview and to protect some people from potential penalties. In principle, it is quite simple: Since the introduction of the Beneficial Owners Register Act in 2018, “legal entities” have been obliged to identify and report their “beneficial owners”.
The term “legal entity” within the meaning of the WiEReG includes different types of legal entities, such as GmbHs, general partnerships (OGs) and limited partnerships (KGs).
“Beneficial owners” are always natural persons. On the one hand, as direct beneficial owners, those who hold more than 25% of the legal entity, and on the other hand, as indirect beneficial owners, those who control one or more legal entities that hold more than 25% of the legal entity. If no beneficial owner can be identified, the members of the top management level of a legal entity must be reported as beneficial owners.
In particular, OGs and KGs if all personally liable partners are natural persons, GmbHs if all partners are natural persons, and sole proprietorships are exempt from the reporting requirement.
Last year the reporting requirement was tightened somewhat. While previously a report only had to be submitted in the event of changes in the beneficial owners, from now on a report must be submitted annually even without changes to confirm the reported data. The deadline for annual reporting is four weeks from the due date for the annual review of this data. In the case of significant changes, the reporting deadline continues to be four weeks from the date the change becomes known.
Since non-compliance with the reporting requirements can result in penalties of up to 200,000 euros, you should definitely make sure that you are well positioned when it comes to WiEReG. As is so often the case, the same applies in this case: ignorance does not protect against punishment.