The term UBO or beneficial owner refers to the natural person(s) who ultimately own(s) or control(s) an entity. Different categories of UBOs exist depending on the type of control they have, the role of the person concerned and the type of the entity concerned.

You must register an intermediary entity when a beneficial owner owns or controls the party responsible for providing information indirectly, that is to say through one or several entities or legal arrangements.

• First category: The natural person(s) who directly or indirectly hold(s) a sufficient percentage of the voting rights or a sufficient shareholding in the capital of the company. The shareholding by a natural person of more than 25% of the voting rights or more than 25% of the shares or capital of the company is an indication of a sufficient but not necessary percentage of voting rights or sufficient direct holding. This means that a person may be registered under the first category even if they hold less than 25% of the capital or voting rights.
• Second category: Natural person(s) who control(s) the company by other means (e.g. right to appoint or revoke main directors, veto right, etc.);
• Third category: If none of the persons referred to in the two points above has been identified, or if there is any doubt as to whether the identified person or persons are the beneficial owners, the UBO will be the natural person or persons holding the position of main director.

Categories 1 and 2 are cumulative.

• When the trustee is established, domiciled or resides in Belgium;
• When the registered office, principal place of business, seat of management or place of management of the trustee is located in Belgium.
• When the trustee is not established, domiciled or does not reside in a Member State or their registered office, principal place of business or seat of management or place of management is not located in a Member State but on behalf of the trust they establish a business relationship or acquire real estate in Belgium.

Since 2020, these legal arrangements must first register with the CBE and obtain an identification number before registering with the UBO register.

It should be noted that if a legal arrangement meeting the criteria mentioned above also falls under the same definition in another EU Member State, it is required to register in the register of beneficial owners in only one Member State.

The bare owner will be registered as a UBO of Category 1 if they own a sufficient percentage of the company's shares of the capital.

The usufructuary will be registered as a UBO of Category 1 if they own or hold a sufficient percentage of the voting rights related to the securities representing the capital.

Please mention also in the field “Remarque/Remark” that the person concerned is the usufructuary of the securities held by the bare owner.

The legal deadline for registering UBOs is one month as from the incorporation of the entity or any change in your UBO information. 

The UBO information must also be confirmed annually.

• Register your beneficial owners within 30 days following your entity’s creation.
• Add a document proving that the registered information are correct.
• Confirm annually that your data are up to date, even if no change has occurred.
• If your data are no longer up to date, change the information with regard to your entity in the UBO register within 30 days.

In the event of non-compliance with the obligations relating to the identification and communication of information on beneficial owners, administrative fines of between 250 and 50,000 EUR can be imposed.

Before imposing a fine, we send a reminder letter to the home address of the legal representatives inviting them to proceed with the registration of the beneficial owners in the UBO register. The legal representatives have 30 days from receipt of this letter to complete the UBO registration or to request a hearing in order to present their defence.

If the registration is not carried out and no request for a hearing is submitted within this period, an administrative fine may be sent to the home address of the legal representatives for infringement of the applicable UBO legislation.

If, 60 days after the fine has been imposed, the entity is still not compliant with the registration requirement, a striking off procedure may be initiated.

If you wish to register the beneficial owners of your entity, you should log in as an enterprise.

If you wish to consult the UBO register as a member of the general public, without registering beneficial owners, you should log in in your own name.

Check that you are listed as a function holder at the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises, via the following URL link: https://kbopub.economie.fgov.be/kbopub/zoeknummerform.html?lang=en

If that is not the case, please contact the CBE in order to update this information via the CBE contact form

If you are listed as a function holder at the CBE, check that you have logged into the UBO register on behalf of an enterprise.

If you are still unable to log into the UBO register for your entity, please contact the UBO team at: ubobelgium@minfin.fed.be.

If a beneficial owner is a foreign national, the entity must nevertheless register them in the UBO register, in the same way they must register a Belgian beneficial owner.

When registering, the entity must mention the unique identification number issued by the country of origin of the UBO, as well as their nationality and country of residence. If this

information is not available in the BIS national register or in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE), the entity must manually enter it in the UBO register.

If the UBO does not have a Belgian national registration number, it must first check if it has a BIS number. To do so, it can contact the Crossroads Bank for Social Security at: identification@ksz-bcss.fgov.be