On May 10, 2016, French Minister of Finance, Michel Sapin, and Secretary of State for the Budget, Christian Eckert, signed a decree laying down the modalities of implementation of the public register of trusts. This register was created by the law of Dec. 6, 2013 (Decree n°2013-1117) but wasn’t yet implemented. It’s designed to contain information on all trusts having tax consequences in France and for which the trustees are subject to the specific annual and/or event-driven trust returns provided under article 1649 AB of the French tax code.
It will be accessible on the Internet as from June 30, 2016 and will contain the following information:
1. Name and address of the trust,
2. Date of settlement and liquidation of the trust,
3. Date and nature of the trust returns filed by the trustee(s) of the trust,
4. Name, date and place of birth, date of death, if applicable, of the settlor, beneficiaries and trustee(s) of the trust if they’re individuals or the French business identification number if they’re in the form of a corporation.
The access will follow a specific procedure and anyone consulting the register of trusts will be identified.
So far, 16,000 trusts have been identified by the French tax administration.
