It has been published in the Official Gazette the Law no. 101/2021 for preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing; this legislation is effective as of 04/30/2021.

Specifically, the law reintroduces the obligation to file the annual declaration on the actual beneficiaries, a requirement that was abolished by Law No. 108/2020.

In addition, as of 4/30/21, there is an absolutely new requirement for companies that have only natural person partners to submit the declaration under the new regulations.

Recall that this regulatory requirement was removed in 2020 by Law No. 108/2020.

In fact, the latter had stipulated that the declaration regarding the beneficial owners no longer had to be submitted annually, but only upon registration of a new company in the Commercial Register and in case of subsequent changes regarding the beneficial owners.

At the same time, until now it had been stipulated that, subsequent to registration with the Register of Enterprises, the declaration regarding beneficial owners no longer had to be submitted by legal entities consisting only of natural person partners.

With Law 101/2021, these two obligations are reintroduced, starting on 04/30/2021, so that, as reflected in the provisions of Law No. 129/2019, the declaration regarding the actual beneficiaries will have to be submitted:

• At the time of a company’s registration with the Registrar of Companies;
• annually, within 15 days of approval (not submission/deposit) of the previous year’s financial statements, for all members;
• whenever there are changes regarding the actual beneficiaries, within 15 days from the date of the changes.

Economy Minister Claudiu Năsui affirmed the government’s intention to procrastinate the deadline for filing the declaration to next October 1, 2021.

Accordingly, we await quick updates on the issue, and in any case recommend clients to make contact with the firm to schedule the activity in question in order to avoid the omission or late submission of the declaration.

Failure to submit the declaration to the Register of Companies is punishable by a fine of 5,000 to 10,000 lei.