Jan. 1 passage of Corporate Transparency Act to see creation of U.S. beneficial ownership registry
In spite of some determined opposition to beneficial ownership registers around the world – on grounds that they put the personal details of the individuals whose names appear on them at risk of being stolen, or otherwise illegally made use of – governments have also been introducing them more and more in recent years, in response to mounting pressure on them to address criminal activities such as money-laundering, tax evasion and fraud, as well as to avoid ending up on “tax haven blacklists”.