Who is a Beneficial Owner?

A Beneficial Owner is someone who either directly or indirectly:

Excercises substantial control over a reporting company.
Owns or controls a minimum of 25% of a reporting company’s ownership interests.
Beneficial owners must be individuals (natural persons); trusts, corporations, or other legal entities are not classified as beneficial owners
In specific situations, details about an entity could be disclosed instead of information about a beneficial owner.

An individual can exercise substantial control over a reporting company in four different ways. If the individual falls into any of the categories below, the individual is exercising substantial control:

The individual is a senior officer (the company’s president, chief financial officer, general counsel, chief executive office, chief operating officer, or any other officer who performs a similar function).
The individual has authority to appoint or remove certain officers or a majority of directors (or similar body) of the reporting company.
The individual is an important decision-maker for the reporting company. See Question D.3 for more information.
The individual has any other form of substantial control over the reporting company as explained further in FinCEN’s Small Entity Compliance Guide (see Chapter 2.1, “What is substantial control?”).