EU lawmakers Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of a proposal that would expand beneficial ownership requirements to cover offshore trusts in efforts to prevent their misuse by tax evaders, money launderers and other financial criminals. The proposal, which members of a joint EU parliamentary panel passed 89-1, would also scrap current rules that would only permit government officials, journalists and other parties who can demonstrate a "legitimate interest" to access registers of data identifying the beneficial owners of legal entities once the databases are established. If ultimately adopted, the proposal would allow EU citizens to view the names, birthdates, nationalities...
Plans to expand access to data identifying the beneficiaries of companies and trusts following a massive leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm last year now enjoy broad support in the European Parliament, say sources.
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