I refer to my letter dated 26 October 2022 about the Administration and Maintenance of Trusts.
Further requirements now need trustees to take immediate action.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development issued a special Regulation Gazette No 11566 in Government Gazette No 48351 on 31 March 2023 after normal business hours. The Gazette contains the amendments to the regulations under the Trust Property Control Act, 57 of 1988 (the Act), giving effect to the amendments to the Act by the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act, 22 of 2022 (the Amendment Act) and are effective as from 1 April 2023.
These regulations stipulate, amongst others, the information about a “beneficial owner” as defined in the Amendment Act that a trustee must record and keep in a register and must upload to an electronic register at the Master of the High Court.
All the trust where we act as independent trustee need to comply and we propose the following steps to update and maintain the records. Please take note that this is a trustee responsibility and not that of the accountant or auditor.
1. The following information needs to be captured and maintained on the Beneficial ownership register and most of this information must be captured on the Master’s Portal.
URN NUMBER |
TRUST NAME |
FILE NUMBER |
GROUNDS ON WHICH / BENEFICIAL OWNER OF TRUST |
FULL NAMES AND SURNAME / ENTITY NAME |
DATE OF BIRTH |
ID TYPE |
ID / PASSPORT / REGISTRATION NO. |
NATIONALITY |
CITIZENSHIP |
REGISTERED TAXPAYER TAX NUMBER |
RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS |
DOMICILIUM ADDRESS |
E-MAIL ADDRESS |
CONTACT NO. (CELL) |
DATE BECOMING BENEFICIAL OWNER OF TRUST |
DATE CEASED BEING BENEFICIAL OWNER OF TRUST |
2. However, before we can do that, we need a Resolution by the trustees and a Power of Attorney of the authorized person to be signed before we can upload the information according to the POPI Act.
3. We will send you the resolution and Power of Attorney via Quickly sign to save time.
4. Upon receipt of each trust’s documents, we will upload the necessary documents as required.
We need all the trusts where we are the independent trustee to co-operate with us without further delay to be able to meet the requirements as soon as possible.
Please remember that this is an ongoing process and will not be a once off effort. We hereby also send you the notice published in the Government Gazette.
Please let us know should you have any questions.