Beneficial owners
The Act on Beneficial Owners imposes upon most enterprises the duty to keep an overview of their beneficial owners and to be able to show who the beneficial owners of the enterprise are.
The Register of Beneficial Owners opens for registration on 1 October 2024
Businesses and other legal persons can from this date onwards register information about beneficial owners.
To make sure businesses have time to identify and obtain information, there will be a phasing time of ten months. Therefore, the obligation to register information about beneficial owners does not take effect until 31 July 2025.
What is a beneficial owner?
A beneficial owner is a physical person who, by themselves or together with others, can exercise control of an enterprise through ownership or voting rights. A person is a beneficial owner if the ownership or voting right exceeds 25 %. Also, physical persons entitled to appoint or dismiss a minimum of 50 % of the members in the governing bodies of the enterprise is a beneficial owner.
The ownership can be direct or indirect through other companies.
In the case of limited liability companies, the beneficial owners are generally identified in the founding documents, shareholder book or shareholder agreements. However, other agreements may have an impact on the assessment. The board of directors are responsible for obtaining, retaining, and registering information about who the beneficial owners of the enterprise are.
The Brønnøysund Register Centre on beneficial owners
The Brønnøysund Register Centre - Check if you have to register beneficial owners
Act on register of beneficial owners (in Norwegian only)
Regulations to the Act on register of beneficial owners (in Norwegian only)
