Policy
Beneficial ownership transparency
This policy is not currently being tracked in real-time by the Tax Justice Policy Tracker. Grades and positions are not assigned.
Insights
Latest event
81 countries have established beneficial ownership registers.
About the policy
Global Progress timeline
2005
Tax Justice Network calls for beneficial ownership registration in key report.
2012
Financial Action Task Force updates anti-money laundering recommendations to expand on beneficial ownership.
2015
4th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive requires EU countries to establish beneficial ownership registers.
2016
UK establishes world’s first beneficial ownership register.
2018
5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive requires EU countries to give public access to beneficial ownership registers.
2020
81 countries have established beneficial ownership registers.
The future
All countries must establish publicly available online beneficial ownership registers otherwise tax abusers will always have someplace to hide.
About the data
Global experts, crowdsourcing power
The data on the Tax Justice Policy Tracker is regularly collected and verified by researchers and experts at the Tax Justice Network and from the wider global tax justice movement.
Crowdsourcing support from the public helps us respond faster to regulatory changes. If you think an answer to a question on the tracker should be updated with new data, please contact us.
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