As many of you know, for every new trust we establish, we provide funding to Nadace Partnerství to improve our childrens’ world by planting and protecting trees in the Czech Republic. This Christmas we are making another donation and we look forward to making even larger donations as our business prospers in the future. You can learn more about Nadace Partnerství on their website.
For those of you who established a trust this year, here’s a note of thanks from Nadace Partnerstvi
As you are probably aware, there has been a proposal on the table for a new register of trusts for some time. We thought we would take this opportunity to update you on what’s happening and the likely structure of the new register.
Part of the register requirements have already passed into law, and these will require all trusts (and companies) to declare who their ‘skutečný majitel’ is. (In English we call this person the ‘Ultimate beneficial owner’).
For trusts, this person will be the one who exercises effective control over the trust. Usually this will be either the trustees, but might in some cases be the founder. Who exactly it is will depend on the structure of the trust.
If we are administering your trust, we will be advising you in the new year who you should declare as the ‘skutečný majitel’ and will prepare the necessary deceleration as a part of our standard Administration service.
It is important to note that this information will not be publicly accessible and will only be available to the state and to other people with a legitimate interest (eg. banks).
The second part of the register is still passing thorough the final stage of the legislative process. However, it seems unlikely that it will change now, so we can inform you of what we expect to be required.
Essentially most Trust documents will need to be filed in the register and each trust will be allocated an Identification number. However, the public will have only very limited access to this information, being able to see only:
Note that this list does not include the name of the founder, the supervisor if any, or the beneficiaries. Also important to note is that, unlike companies, there are no fees for filing documents with the register.
In addition to this public information, you will also need to file these details – but they will be non-public:
Any trust documents which include any of the non-public information (and of course this means almost all Trust documents including the statute and contract), will also be non-public.
For most of our clients this is a good result, striking an excellent balance between protection of your personal privacy and the need to eliminate potential misuse of trusts. It will also help significantly build the acceptance of trusts, especially since you will now have the all important Identification number as well as the ability to provide people who ask with an extract from the register.
If you have any questions about how the new register will affect you, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Normally our clients prefer us to keep the work we have done for them confidential, but not all. The Czech Economics Society is one such exception. We recently worked with them to establish a fund in memory of the late Kateřina Šmídková, Director of Economic Research at the Czech National Bank and Professor of Economics at Charles University, who died after a long illness at the age of 46 years.
The Kateřina Šmídková Trust now provides a regular prize to encourage the work of female economists in the Czech Republic. We were very proud to be involved on this important project.
We have added a section to our site illustrating the potential uses of trusts for endowment purposes.
If you would be interested in contributing to this very worthy cause, please contact us and we will put you in touch with the Economics Society
