When an authorized representative of the company or association - signatory, fills in the KYC (know your customer) questionnaire, they have to fill in the identity of the beneficial owner(s) of the company.
What is a beneficial owner?
A beneficial owner is the natural person(s) who ultimately owns and/or controls the company. A person can control a limited liability company in different ways, for example: holding more than 25% of the votes through shares or having the right to appoint or remove more than half of the directors. All companies must notify the beneficial owner to the Swedish Companies Registration Office/Bolagsverket.
Examples of what is considered control:
Owning more than 25% of the votes through shares; or
Having the right to appoint or dismiss more than 50% of the board members.
(it is sufficient to meet the criteria in one of the points) It is possible that due to provisions in e.g. the Articles of Association or the Statutes there is a principal that does not meet the criteria in the points above. It must still be registered as a principal.
Related parties
If a person owns or controls a limited liability company together with related parties, their control is counted together. Related parties are:
Spouse, husband, cohabitant, registered partner
Parents
Children
Children's spouses, cohabitants, registered partners.
Practical example:
A person owns 28% of a limited liability company. The person is the beneficial owner. There can also be several beneficial owners!
Two spouses each own 15% of a limited liability company. As they are related, their control is aggregated and both become beneficial owners.
Four shareholders own 25% each. None of them becomes the beneficial owner.
One person owns 100% of a limited liability company, which in turn owns all the shares of another company. The person is the beneficial owner of both companies.
Read more on the Bolagsverket website:
Please note!
If there is no beneficial owner, you must also report this to the Swedish Companies Registration Office.
Non-profit associations have special rules - they only need to report if they have a beneficial owner.