CRBOT Registration in Ireland

What is the CRBOT?

The CRBOT (Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of Trusts) contains details of relevant trusts and their beneficial owners. The purpose of the CRBOT is to help prevent money laundering and terrorist financing by improving transparency on who ultimately owns and controls Irish trusts. The Irish trust register legislation SI 194/2021 also extends to trusts outside the Irish State that hold property or have a business relationship in Ireland.

Trusts where none of the trustees is resident in the European Union (EU) and where the trust is not administered in the EU, must register with the CRBOT if a trustee acquires land or other real property in the State in the name of the trust. This will apply as long as the land or property continues to be held by a trustee in the name of the trust.

UK trustees that have a relevant trust registered in another Member State (MS) are not required to register with the CRBOT as long as the trustee has filed the information on the Central Register in another MS and the information is the same as what is required to be filed on the CRBOT (apart from the PPSN). The trustee must acquire a certificate from the Registrar in that other MS which should state that the trustee has filed the information on the Central Trust Register in that MS. The certificate must be available for inspection by the CRBOT Registrar.

Trustees of relevant trusts are reminded that the initial deadline date, to register details of the beneficial ownership of trust on the CRBOT, was 23rd October 2021 for trusts that were established on or before 23rd April 2021. Trusts established after that date must register within six months of the establishment of the trust. Revenue recognises that there may have been genuine difficulties for some trustees in registering all their details by this date and will provide support to trustees who are making the best efforts to register.

Revenue continues to engage with representative bodies and trustees, to help trustees meet their registration obligations. However, failure of a trustee to meet their obligations is an offence under Irish legislation and the Irish Statutory Instrument 194/2021 sets out the penalties for trustees that fail to comply.

A UK Legal Entity is a beneficial owner of a trust that holds property or has a business relationship in Ireland

• Scenario 1: The UK Legal Entity is not registered on another central register in the EU: The trustee must provide full individual beneficial owner details of this legal entity when registering the trust on the CRBOT.

• Scenario 2: The UK Legal Entity is registered on another register central register in the EU: The trustee must provide the name of the legal entity and reference number from the central register where the legal entity's beneficial ownership details have been provided when entering the details of the legal entity beneficial owner of the trust. There is no requirement to provide the individual beneficial owner details of the legal entity in this case.

• Scenario 3: The UK Legal Entity is registered on the HMRC Trust Registration Service (TRS) only: The trustee must provide full individual beneficial owner details of this legal entity.

If a beneficial owner does not have a PPSN (Personal Public Services Number), evidence of another form of identification is required. Supporting documentation must be uploaded of a foreign tax registration number, a passport number or a national identity number. See examples below:

• Foreign Tax Registration – Copy of official correspondence received by the beneficial owner from HMRC (if UK tax number)

• Passport – Copy of same to be uploaded

• National Identity Number – Copy of recent official government correspondence showing beneficial owner details, e.g. name & national insurance number (if UK resident).

• This is required for all beneficial owners that do not possess a PPS number. Electronic copies must be in the tif, tiff or pdf format and be less than 5 megabytes in size.

In this case, where the minors do not possess any of the ID documents previously mentioned, a copy of an official birth certificate will suffice.

If you are looking to register with the CRBOT in Ireland, get in contact with us below: