Ownership, funding and control: three different questions

Three questions, three kinds of record

Ownership asks who holds the shares or the assets. Funding asks where the money comes from, such as grants, donations or fees. Control asks who can direct decisions. A single person or body may hold all three roles, or none of them.

The records that answer each question are kept by different bodies. Company registers deal with ownership and control. Political finance regulators, lobbying registers and charity regulators deal mostly with funding. Foreign influence schemes deal with direction, meaning who is acting on whose instructions ^7,8.

Ownership and control in company registers

In the United Kingdom, a person with significant control is usually anyone who holds more than 25% of shares or voting rights, can appoint or remove a majority of directors, or can influence or control the company or a trust ¹. A separate significant influence or control condition covers control through other means, and Companies House says it applies only in limited circumstances ¹.

The UK register asks for the person's name, date of birth, nationality, country of residence, service address, natures of control and level of shares or voting rights. The home address must not be disclosed ¹. Mandatory identity verification was introduced on 18 November 2025 ¹.

In the United States, FinCEN published an interim final rule on 26 March 2025 that removed beneficial ownership reporting duties for U.S.-formed companies and U.S. persons. A final rule of 11 August 2026 made those exemptions permanent from 14 August 2026 ². Only entities formed under the law of a foreign country and registered to do business in a U.S. state or tribal jurisdiction still report ².

In the European Union, the Court of Justice ruled on 22 November 2022 that the anti-money-laundering rule giving the general public access to beneficial ownership information in all cases was invalid. The Court found the interference with Charter rights was neither limited to what is strictly necessary nor proportionate ³.

Funding in influence and charity records

Funding disclosure sits mostly outside company law. The EU Transparency Register asks registrants to declare whom they represent, which policies they want to influence, and how they are funded ⁴. Germany's lobby register law asks for main funding sources ranked by share, public grants above EUR 10,000 per funder, and named donors where a gift exceeds EUR 10,000 and 10% of annual totals ⁵.

Charity records can show income without showing donors. The IRS says an exempt organization other than a private foundation is not required to disclose the name and address of any contributor ⁶.

When direction matters more than money

Foreign influence schemes focus on who directs an activity. The US Foreign Agents Registration Act, enacted in 1938, requires certain agents of foreign principals to disclose their relationship with the principal, their activities, and their receipts and disbursements ⁷. The UK scheme covers activities carried out at the instruction of a foreign state or a foreign state-controlled organisation ⁸. In both cases the trigger is a direction or arrangement, not ownership or a share of funding.

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