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what is a person with significant control

What is a Person with Significant Control?

28/04/2025Business

A successful business requires strong decision-making skills, managerial skills, and enough cash to execute your plans. Handling all company matters is difficult, so you need to distribute the tasks among people, where a few people will have more authority than the rest. This article covers how much authority a person with significant control can enjoy along with performing crucial duties in the company.

Talk to our best accountants and bookkeepers in the UK at CruseBurke. You will get instant help about what is a person with significant control.

What is a Person with Significant Control?

A person with significant control (PSC) is the one who owns the company wholly or in partnership or controls your company. A person with significant control is called a “beneficial owner.”

Before starting a company, a businessman must specify his person with significant control. Those persons could be you or someone who is associated with your business. An enterprise can have one, two, or multiple persons with significant control. The names of persons with significant control must be provided to the UK government.

The company owner must record their details in the person with significant control register of the company and also mention this information when they start the business. If a businessman is unable to secure his person with significant control or he does not need it, inform the UK government in both scenarios.

Identifying your PSC

The UK government has defined the criteria for identifying a person with significant control; a person with significant control must meet one or more conditions, which are labelled as “nature of control”. The person with a significant control register of the company must mention which conditions are met.

The “nature of control” for the person with significant control are mentioned below

  • They must hold more than 25% shares in the company
  • They must have voting power of more than 25% in the company
  • The person with significant control must have the authority to appoint or remove the majority of the board of directors of the company. To check voting power, you must check the company register for information on members, company shareholders and the voting power they enjoy in the company.

The voting power information can also be obtained from the company constitution and articles of association. These documents also have information about how many shares a person with significant control in the company owns.

Other Significant Influence or Control

The company person with significant control can influence or control the company in other ways. They can control the company directly or on behalf of someone else.

For instance, a person with significant control may affect or control the actions of directors or shareholders. This condition is applicable in a few circumstances.

If your company is controlled by a trust or firm without ‘legal personality’

If you are nominating a trust or firm as your controlling authority, then you should record all the trustees and members or partners of the firm as person with significant control and register this information at the Companies House.

Recording your PSC Information

The details that should be recorded while registering the person with significant control are mentioned below; however, they should be confirmed first to avoid any inconvenience.

  • name
  • date of birth
  • nationality and country of residence of the PSC
  • correspondence address – known as the ‘service address’
  • home address (this must not be disclosed)
  • the date they became a PSC of the company
  • the date you entered them into your PSC register
  • all natures of control which apply

The amount of company shares owned by the person with significant control and the voting rights they enjoy must fall into the categories below

  • over 25% up to (and including) 50%
  • more than 50% and less than 75%
  • 75% or more

If Your PSC Information Changes

If a company changes its person with significant control or any information regarding them, the information in the company’s person with significant control register must be updated. The information of the person with significant control must be updated within 14 days of the information change.

These changes in the information must be sent to the Companies House within 14 days so that the information is updated with each stakeholder. This process should be completed within 14 days. It can be done online, which is much easier than going to the Companies House office.

If a business owner does not have an online account at the Companies House portal, then they first have to register for online filing. The information can also be sent online through third-party software.

Contacting your PSC

The search and identification process for a person with significant control of the company is extensive. The company owner must contact each person whom he thinks is eligible for the post. While in the UK, a company must provide all the required information to the UK government; however, refusing to do so is a criminal offense. The company owner has the power to apply restrictions on the voting power and shares of a person with significant control.

Restricting the voting rights and shares held is a crucial step. Such a step should be taken only if the person with significant control is not providing the required details despite repeated requests.

Information in your PSC Register

The information in the person with significant control register of the company should be complete according to the criteria of UK government and updated as well.

If the information is incomplete and outdated, then you must provide the reason why this happened and put that statement in your PSC register. The PSC register should not be blank; display required information.

Conclusion

The person with significant control is the one who owns the company or controls the company. There can be one, two, or multiple persons with significant control over the company. The information regarding PSC should be added and updated in the PSC register of the company. The PSC should provide all the needed information to the UK government. If the information is not provided, then you can restructure their voting power and the shares they hold. However, this should happen in a worst-case scenario if the information isn’t provided on repeated requests.

Reach out to our intelligent and clever-minded guys to get the answer to your queries in the UK, we will get to your answers quickly. We will help to decide how to deal with your tax implications.

Disclaimer: The information about what is a person with significant control provided in this blog includes text and graphics of general nature. It does not intend to disregard any of the professional advice.

  

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