Transparency Obligations in Respect of Certain Legal Arrangements

(1) Trustees resident or established in Germany shall obtain, retain and keep up to date the information listed in section 19(1) on the beneficial owners of the trust they administer, and shall notify it to the register-keeping body without delay for entry in the Transparency Register. The obligation under the first sentence also applies to trustees resident or established outside the European Union where, for the trust, they enter into a business relationship with a contracting party established in Germany, or undertake to acquire ownership of a domestic item of real property, where interests within the meaning of section 1(3) of the Real Property Transfer Tax Act are combined in it or pass to it, or where it holds an economic interest within the meaning of section 1(3a) of the Real Property Transfer Tax Act on the basis of a legal transaction. The obligation under the first sentence does not apply to the trustees referred to in the second sentence where a trustee has already transmitted the information under Article 1, no. 16, letter a) of Directive (EU) 2018/843 and under section 19(1) to another register of a Member State of the European Union and 1. the trustee also maintains a residence or registered office in that Member State of the European Union, or 2. one of the contracting parties with whom a trust resident or established outside the European Union also maintains a business relationship has its registered office in that Member State.
(1a) The notification must be made electronically in a form permitting its electronic accessibility. The trust must be clearly identified in the notification. As regards the information on the nature and extent of the beneficial interest under section 19(1), no. 4, it shall be stated what, under section 19(3), no. 2, the status as beneficial owner is based on.
(1b) The register-keeping body shall further be notified without delay, by the person obliged to notify under subsection (1), where the trust 1. has been renamed, 2. has been dissolved, or 3. is no longer subject to the obligation under subsection (1).
(2) The obligations under subsections (1), (1a) and (1b) apply correspondingly to trustees resident or established in Germany of the following legal arrangements: 1. non-legal-capacity foundations, where the foundation's purpose is, from the founder's perspective, self-serving, and 2. legal arrangements that correspond to such foundations in structure or function.
(3) The Financial Intelligence Unit and the supervisory authorities may, within the scope of their tasks and powers, inspect or request production of the information retained by trustees under subsection (1) and by fiduciaries under subsection (2). The information shall be made available to them without delay.
(4) The Federal Ministry of Finance is authorised, in agreement with the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, by statutory instrument not requiring the consent of the Bundesrat, to regulate the details of which trusts and trust-like legal arrangements are covered by section 21(1) and (2) and the characteristics by which they are distinguished.