BUSINESS & ECONOMY

d. The obligation of companies and partnerships to submit and update their Beneficial Owners information is not affected and remains valid.

Further, other EU Member States’ UBO Registers have announced the suspension of public access to the said Registers, including Luxembourg9, The Netherlands10, Malta11, Ireland12, Austria13 and Germany14

Regarding the aftermath of the CJEU Judgement in WM and SOVIM SA, commentators have noted the possibility of a spill over effect into the area of international tax reporting obligations. To that effect, KPMG EU Tax Centre commented, amongst other, that ‘the case could impact other legislation in the field of transparency, including the recently adopted EU Public Country-by-Country Directive. In particular it would be interesting to see how the CJEU would interpret the compatibility of the Charter with opt-in provisions such as the ‘safeguard clause’ under which Member States can allow in-scope groups to defer the disclosure of commercially sensitive information for up to 5 years, and where no clear definition was provided15. Further, the eminent Professor in Tax Law at Queen Mary University of London Christiana HJI Panayi noted16, amongst other, that: ‘Whilst this is general (non-tax specific) legislation, it will be interesting to see if the Court of Justice will feel equally emboldened to strike down any new EU tax legislation that is introduced which could be in breach of the fundamental rights. The Commission's Unshell proposal is not the only prospective target. In my view, it is not completely utopian to imagine a challenge to an eventually adopted Directive on minimum effective tax rates on the basis of the right to property (Article 17) or right to an effective remedy (Article 47), if there is consistently double taxation and inadequate dispute resolution mechanisms.

This is potentially an interesting twist to the debate as regards Pillar 2 - especially the UTPR - and the Commission attempts to adopt it.

Food for thought for Brussels...’.

With the above remarks in mind, it remains to be seen whether the CJEU Judgement in WM and SOVIM SA will herald a new period regarding the contests to the legality of mentioned as ‘tax transparency related’ measures, including DAC6, CRS and the EU Commission’s ‘UnShell’ legislative initiative.

1 The CJEU Judgement, in English, is accessible at https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document. jsf;jsessionid=B2C57BA079E25F586E4A378F4D1078EA?text=&docid=268842&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=161951.

2 Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, and amending Directives 2009/138/EC and 2013/36/EU (Text with EEA relevance). Accessible, in English, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/ legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32018L0843.

3 See to that effect CJEU Judgement dated 22nd November 2022 in Joined Cases C-37/20 and C-601/20 WM (C-37/20) and Sovim SA (C-601/20) v. Luxembourg Business Registers, indents (paragraphs) 39 – 44 and 75 – 76.

4 Ibid, indents (paragraphs) 61 – 62.

5 See to that effect ECJ Judgement dated 8th April 2014 in Joined Cases C-293/12 and C-594/12 in Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and Others and Kärntner Landesregierung and Others. Accessible, in English, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A62012CJ0293.

6 See to that effect page 4 of the Article 29 WP Opinion 14/2011. Accessible, in English, at https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/documentation/opinion-recommendation/files/2011/wp186_ en.pdf.

7 See to that effect paragraphs 4 – 7 page 1, paragraph 60 page 13 (with reference to the so – called ‘Panama Papers’), paragraph 63 page 14 and paragraph 66 page 15. Accessible, in English, at https://edps.europa.eu/sites/edp/files/publication/17-02-02_opinion_aml_en.pdf.

8 See to that effect, in English translation, https://www.companies.gov.cy/en/knowledgebase/news/suspension-of-access-to-the-beneficial-owners-register-for-the-general-public.

9 See to that effect the Luxembourg Business Registers (LBR) Warning dated 22nd November 2022, accessible, in English, at https://www.lbr.lu/mjrcs-lbr/jsp/IndexActionNotSecured. action?time=1670324001998&loop=3.

10 See to that effect the Dutch Ministry of Finance Announcement dated 22nd November 2022 and the relevant Letter of the Ministry of Finance to the Dutch Parliament dated 22nd November 2022, both accessible, in Dutch, at https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/kamerstukken/2022/11/22/kamerbrief-over-tijdelijk-geen-informatieverstrekkingen-uit-het-ubo-register-naaraanleiding-van-uitspraak-eu-hof.

11 See to that effect the Malta Business Registry (MBR) Notice dated 25th November 2022, accessible in English, at https://registry.mbr.mt/static-resources/documents/docs/BO%20Register%20 Access.pdf and https://registry.mbr.mt/ROC/.

12 See to that effect the Irish Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of Companies and Industrial and Provident Societies (RBO) Announcement, accessible in English, at https://rbo.gov.ie/.

13 See to that effect the Republic of Austria Federal Ministry of Finance Announcement, accessible in English, at https://www.bmf.gv.at/en/topics/financial-sector/beneficial-owners-registeract/Public-access.html,

14 See to that effect the Federal Republic of Germany Transparency Registry Announcement dated 30th November 2022, accessible at https://www.transparenzregister.de/treg/de/aktuell?1.

15 See to that effect KPMG EU Tax Centre article entitled ‘The CJEU invalidates certain transparency obligations under AMLD’ dated 24th November 2022 by Robert van der Jagt and Ana Puscas. Accessible, in English, at https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2022/11/etf-cjeu-invalidates-certain-transparency-obligations-under-amld.html.

16 See to that effect https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_ profile%3AACoAAABuZPEBIHqimsLNSnM5w3FNXO0Bleo9AZQ&keywords=christiana%20hji%20panayi&origin=SWITCH_SEARCH_VERTICAL&position=1&searchId=0d0f1d87-5251-42aca781-f73003ea29b4&sid=l*U