Concise Accountancy

Accountants and Registered Auditors

Overseas Entities

Overseas Entity ID

Overseas companies who would like to buy, sell, lease, or transfer UK land and property must obtain the Overseas Entity ID from Companies House first. This law came into effect on 1 August 2022. The law governing this subject is the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022.

To get your Overseas Entity ID, you must apply with Companies House. Your application must include the details of your overseas entity and its beneficial owners and managing officers. Once approved, these details will be added to the Register of Overseas Entities.

Companies House also emails the notice of registration to your overseas entity. This will include your Overseas Entity ID. You must give this ID to the Land Registry whenever you buy, sell, lease, or transfer UK land and property. The registration fee is £100.

If the application is rejected, Companies House will refund your £100.

Thereafter your overseas entity must file an annual update one year after it was registered, and every year after that. This is similar to limited companies filing their confirmation statement every year. You must let Companies House know about any changes, or confirm that the information Companies House hold is still correct. It must be filed no later than 14 days after the due date. It can also file earlier if it needs to update any information.

On the same note, your overseas entity can apply to be removed from the Register of Overseas Entities if it is not, or is no longer, a registered owner of land or property in the UK.

Companies House will announce when the sections of The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 relating to updates and removal will come into force in the near future.

Share this post

%d bloggers like this: