Legal basis, case studies, FAQs and information on registers of other countries

Here you will find an overview of the applicable legal provisions and the information available on other Member States.

General legal bases

The Register of Beneficial Owners is an implementation of Art. 30 and 31 of Directive (EU) 2015/849 (4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive), as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/843 (5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive). The Beneficial Owners Register Act (BORA) implements the Register for Companies and Other Legal Persons and the Register for Trusts, which were provided for in the 4th and 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, in a central register. A translation of the federal act is also available under the link here. On 19th September 2024, the Federal Ministry of Finance published an updated comprehensive decree with respect to identifying, verifying the identity and reporting beneficial owners, which presented the legal opinion of the Finance Ministry on a wide range of questions. 

The BORA BMF decree

On 26 April 2018, the Federal Ministry of Finance published a comprehensive decree on the identification, verification and reporting of beneficial owners, which sets out the legal view of the ministry for a wide range of issues. The decree has been reworked due to the introduction of compliance-packages, changes as a result of the 5th money laundering directive and questions directed at the registry authority by legal prifessions. After changes in the BORA in 2023 it became necessary to adapt the decree once more. The new version was published under BMF-AV Nr. 126/2024 and can be accessed via the Findok of the Federal Ministry of Finance by following this direct link.

FAQ

Answers to the most important questions on the topics of reporting, identification and verification of beneficial owners and user charges can be found here. (PDF, 827 KB)

Information on registers of other Member States and third countries

Information on the registers of beneficial owners of EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway as well as the links to webpages of national registries can be accessed via the European e-Justice Portal:

European e-Justice Portal - Beneficial ownership registers interconnection system (BORIS)

Legal form-specific documents and country-specific information

For selected jurisdictions, the registry authority provides country-specific information, which is continuously updated and expanded. This includes information on the legal forms typical for the country and on the country-specific documents (in each case for specific, locally available legal forms). Currently, information is available for the following jurisdictions:

Note for the file according to Article 5a (3) BORA

If there are justified reasons against the transmission of a document to the register, a complete note for the file may be transmitted to the register instead of the document pursuant to Article 5a (3) BORA. The templates of the Federal Ministry of Finance may be used for the preparation:

For more information on the compilation of note for the files, please refer to item6.5 of the BORA BMF decree.

Confirmation of ultimate/superordinate legal entities

In order to assess whether there are deviating voting rights or control relationships, a confirmation of a ultimate/superordinate legal entity with its registered office in Austria or abroad can be obtained in accordance with item 6.3 of the BORA BMF decree. The templates of the Federal Ministry of Finance can be used for the preparation: