Beneficial Ownership Act amended to include 'foreign partnerships'
August 14, 2025
The National Assembly has approved amendments to the Beneficial Ownership Act to ensure that all partnerships formed, incorporated or established outside Seychelles which however are conducting business within our jurisdiction (so-called “foreign partnerships”) will be within scope of the Act and thus required to declare their beneficial owners and upload details of the same on the beneficial ownership database.
The amendments have as objectives to boost transparency, in particular for tax purposes, combat financial crimes, improve monitoring and good governance and meet international standards.
Presenting the bill before the National Assembly today, Vice President Ahmed Afif, Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade explained the current Beneficial Ownership Law does not address partnerships which while operating in Seychelles, are however not registered locally, therefore they are not obligated to declare their beneficial owners.
“This void minimises the efficacity of the law in terms of transparency and threatening the reputation of our country, because we do not know the real owners behind these particular partnerships.”
The amendments to the BO Act focused on Sections 2 and 3 and the First Schedule.
Section 2 has been amended to provide that the Act also applies to any partnership formed, incorporated or otherwise established outside Seychelles, but conducting or carrying on business within Seychelles, and clarifies that only partnerships which are not conducting or carrying on business within the jurisdiction are now out of scope of the Act.
The resident agent for such foreign partnerships as provided for in amendments to Section 3, will be the same representative as that elected by the partnership for purposes of performing duties or obligations imposed by a revenue law on that taxpayer, as per the provisions of the Revenue Administration Act.
The First Schedule of the Act was amended to provide that the competent authority in relation to such foreign partnerships will be the Financial Intelligence Unit.
The amendments in these sections are to ensure all partnerships operating in Seychelles regardless whether they are registered in our jurisdiction should be required to declare and maintain a register of their Beneficial Owners with an appropriate party, being their resident agent based in Seychelles. The resident agent on behalf of the partnership is obligated to populate their beneficial owners in the beneficial ownership database maintained by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).