The French register of Trusts goes on line with unlimited public access in June

Trusts Discussion
1

Well, the decree was signed on 10th May and published on 11th see https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jo_pdf.do?id=JORFTEXT000032511026

Contrary to what was initially stated, there are no controls over access to the Register, only traces of who consulted it.

The French in an admitted state of ignorance, have therefore managed to transform confidential fiscal returns into a register of deemed foreign movable interests, under French law.

One of the perpetrators of the article 792-0 bis CGI deeming mechanism, Senator Marini seemed taken aback when informed that a trust as a property law concept, as opposed to the contractual mechanism he was attempting to invent, even when papers written by French Professors of law from the Sorbonne were produced to him clearly stating the contrary to his “thesis”.

It is probably now too late for that invention of what is creeping towards a deemed property right to be reversed.

By conceptual definition, the presentation on the French Register will probably in most cases not correspond to either the legal or the economic reality of the foreign law trust set up.

There are provisions enabling rectification, but the general rule as to opposing publication under the general rule has been specifically removed.

Peter Harris
www.overseaschambers.com

2

Now that the French Constitutional Court has rendered this Register invalid for constitutional reasons, is there any news from STEP about insisting at the European Parliament level that such an intrusive measure is equally unconstitutional if taken to the level of the TEU?
As yet, no European institution has taken any overt initiative of addressing the issue of whether a trust counts as a quasi- testamentary disposition, thereby remaining within the sacred circle of the private realm or life of the citizen/subject in relation to the disposal of their property with a view to death…Generally speaking in any civilised environment such matters are granted confidentiality.

Peter Harris

www.oveseaschambers.com