{"id":490,"date":"2023-02-08T15:20:58","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T15:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/?p=490"},"modified":"2023-02-14T15:45:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T15:45:59","slug":"important-new-legal-obligations-for-quebec-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/important-new-legal-obligations-for-quebec-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Important new legal obligations for Quebec businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Government of Quebec is implementing new measures and enhancing the information available at the <em>Registraire des entreprises du Qu\u00e9bec <\/em>(REQ). The aim is to improve corporate transparency, strengthen public protection and prevent\/fight tax evasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These new measures will come into effect on March 31, 2023 and, with a few rare exceptions, all Quebec businesses  will have to comply with them. Here&#8217;s what its about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Submit  information to REQ regarding <em>ultimate beneficiaries<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You must now master this new notion of \u201cultimate beneficiary\u201d. In Quebec, an ultimate beneficiary is, most commonly, a person who holds 25% or more of the voting rights, 25% or more or of the fair market value, or who has an influence which could result in a <em>de facto<\/em> control of the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Businesses must take the necessary steps to trace and to identify their ultimate beneficiaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, a business must carry out a legal, documentary and factual analysis of its situation. For example, in the case of a corporation, it must analyze its share capital and any agreements that may influence the way  voting rights are exercised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, the ultimate beneficiaries are sometimes different from the corporation\u2019s shareholders. This would be the case when its shares are wholly owned by a holding company.  The shareholding of this holding company would then have to be analyzed .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Information to be provided\non ultimate beneficiaries:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Full name;<\/li><li>Date of birth;<\/li><li>Other used names (ex: a pseudonym);<\/li><li>Start and end date of ultimate beneficiary status;<\/li><li>Home address (option to also provide a professional address and thus prevent the home address from being accessible to the public);<\/li><li>Type of control exercised or percentage of shares, interests or units held.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Will this new information be\nmade public by the REQ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following information is declared to the REQ\nand accessible to the public:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>full name;<\/li><li>business name when the ultimate beneficiary is a business;<\/li><li>other name(s) used in Quebec and under which (s)he identifies (eg, pseudonym);<\/li><li>date on which (s)he became and ceased to be an ultimate beneficiary;<\/li><li>professional  address if declared, otherwise the home address;<\/li><li>type of control exercised or the percentage of shares, interests or units held.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The following information is declared to the REQ but\nnot accessible to the public:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>date of birth;<\/li><li>home address, if a valid  professional  address is declared;<\/li><li>certain information relating to a minor who is the ultimate beneficiary. However, a notice will still be entered in the REQ to the effect that there is an ultimate beneficiary.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike federal corporations, the new Quebec Law does not impose the obligation to keep a register of persons exercising significant control in the minute book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Other new REQ obligations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the new measures regarding the concept of ultimate beneficiary, here are some other obligations that businesses must comply with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Provide IDs for all directors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether (s)he is already a registered director or newly elected, every\ndirector must provide the REQ with an identity document. The ID must be valid,\nthat is to say, it must not have expired, and the copy sent to the REQ must be\nlegible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The copy of the ID will be kept until the date of registration of the\nbusiness or the filing of its updating declaration. It will then be destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note that this obligation only applies to directors. No other related person (eg ultimate beneficiaries, shareholders, partners) has this obligation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The copy of the ID must be submitted to the REQ by the end of your business\u2019 annual declaration period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Declaring\nthe date of birth of registered individuals<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The date of birth of all individuals registered with the REQ (except for\nattorneys and third part administrators) must be declared to the REQ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the date of birth will not be published at the REQ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This information must be declared by the end of your business\u2019\nannual declaration period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Possibility\nof declaring an individuals\u2019 professional address <\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The declaration of an individual&#8217;s home address of  (eg directors, shareholders, partners) is mandatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if you do not want an individual\u2019s home address to be published and publicly accessible at the REQ, you will be able to also declare their business address, if they have one. The individual&#8217;s professional address corresponds to his\/her principal place of work or business. It is not possible to submit a post office box as a business address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A new search tool for 2024<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, note that after several years of discussion regarding this issue, REQ searches using the surname and first name of an individual will be possible  as of March 31, 2024. However, the Law provides that certain personal information (such as date of birth) will not be part of such a search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you need\nassistance navigating these new rules and ensuring your business complies with\nthe new Law, please do not hesitate to contact me at (514) 856-5601 or by email\nat <a href=\"mailto:sam@malekavocat.com\">sam@malekavocat.com<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Government of Quebec is implementing new measures and enhancing the information available at the Registraire des entreprises du Qu\u00e9bec (REQ). The aim is to improve corporate transparency, strengthen public protection and prevent\/fight tax evasion. These new measures will come into effect on March 31, 2023 and, with a few rare exceptions, all Quebec businesses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86,117,77,83,44,82],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-annual-declaration","tag-declaration","tag-quebec","tag-registrar","tag-registration","tag-req"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9a8Pe-7U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malekavocat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}