Who Is a Beneficial Owner?
The Legislative Decree No. 1372 regulated the obligation to file the Declaration of Beneficial Ownership of legal individuals and/or entities. Therein, the Tax Administration is informed of the identification of the individuals who effectively and finally own or control these subjects or on whose behalf transactions are carried out.
The obligation of such declaration was progressively implemented, which is currently pending for legal entities and has been constantly postponed due to the difficulties in identifying their beneficial owners.
Legal Entities
Article 3(d) of Legislative Decree No. 1372 defines legal entities as including i) Autonomous net worths without legal status managed by third parties; ii) Contracts and other agreements of two or more individuals temporarily associated with carrying out an activity.
In this regard, examples of legal entities are investment funds and mutual funds for investment in securities, trusts, and consortiums, among others.
Beneficial Owners of Legal Entities
The rule states that the beneficial owners are the individuals holding a similar position, as applicable: Trustor, trustee, beneficiary(ies) of the trust, and any other individual acting as a participant or investor who exercises the final effective control of the net worth or is entitled to the results or profits of the legal entity.
Difficulties in the Identification of the Beneficial Owner of Legal Entities
The identification of beneficial owners implies identifying all the parties to any transaction, but it is still quite broad and diffuse due to the spectrum of persons involved.
It leads to the need for the legal entity to implement procedures to identify the beneficial owners, which implies a thorough procedure, given that all the individuals who qualify as beneficial owners are unavailable to the incorporator of the legal entity.
SUNAT Indications
SUNAT (Superintendencia Nacional de Aduanas y de Administración Tributaria – National Superintendence of Customs and Tax Administration) confirmed the difficulty of this declaration, which is why this proposed two extensions to file this sector. Indeed, SUNAT will also face the verification of the validity of the information provided by the taxpayer due to the greater number of legal entities than legal persons, and the number of individuals involved in each legal entity varies.
Declaration Filing
Certainly, according to Superintendence Resolution No. 236-2023/SUNAT, legal entities must file their Declaration of Beneficial Ownership in June 2024. Therefore, due to the upcoming entry into force of their obligation, legal entities should gather as much relevant information as possible to identify their beneficial owners to comply with this obligation before the Tax Administration.