UBO - Ultimate Beneficial Owner Services in Dubai, UAE

 

The Ultimate Beneficial Owners (the UBO Law) is part of the UAE government’s efforts to ramp up measures to deal with tax avoidance and money laundering while maintaining international best practices.

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Overview of UBO Declaration In The UAE

Over the past few years, the UAE government has been coming up with more and more effective measures against money laundering and terrorist financing activities. One of these decisions was Cabinet Decision No. 58 in 2020 regarding Regulation of the Procedures of the Real Beneficiary. This decision mandates that companies registered in the UAE, both free zones and the mainland, must maintain a register of the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) and submit it to the relevant authorities. This will become a crucial part of the license application procedure or incorporation of a company, both in the mainland or in the free zones.

This regulation’s main intention is to bring more transparency in the UAE economic framework via improved disclosure and record-keeping requisites for companies. The Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) regulations in Dubai will ensure that companies pay adequate attention to their ownership structure to avoid non-compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws.

Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) Disclosure in the UAE

The Resolution requires entities licensed in the UAE (unless exemptions apply) to prepare and file an Ultimate Beneficial Owner (“UBO”) register, Nominee Director register (if applicable) and a Partners or Shareholders register, with the relevant authority within sixty (60) days from the date the Resolution came into effect, being 27 October 2020, or by the date the entity is established. Whilst certain Free Zones have already implemented rules and processes to file UBO data, further guidance from a number of other Free Zone authorities and the Department of Economic Development (for onshore entities) is expected in relation to the filing mechanisms.

UBO Register

The UBO Register must have the details of the company’s “Real Beneficiaries,” which, according to the UBO Law, is defined as: Natural persons who own/control, either directly or indirectly, a minimum of 25% of the company’s share capital, or those who hold at least 25% of the voting rights, or those who control the company via mean, i.e., by having the right to appoint or dismiss a majority of the directors or managers.

UBO Exemptions

Companies listed on the regulated stock exchanges and the subsidiaries of such listed companies do not need to submit any separate registers with information about Ultimate Beneficial Owner to the Registrar. The disclosures made by them to the relevant stock exchanges will be counted as the relevant required submission in its place. Those companies wholly owned by a local or federal government body or are set up in the DIFC, or ADGM financial free zones are also exempted since they are subject to their own UBO disclosure requirements.

Basic faq

Common Question

To put it quite simply, the UBO Law makes it a must for companies to maintain registers with details about ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs), shareholders, and nominee board members.

The UBO Law applies to all businesses/companies licensed and registered in the UAE. The only exceptions to the UBO law are companies that are wholly owned by a local or federal government body and those set up in the DIFC or ADGM financial free zones since they are already subject to their own UBO disclosure requirements.

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