Friday March 10 2023

Registre des Entreprises du Québec (REQ): new obligations to provide identification documents

As of March 31, the Registraire des entreprises du Québec (REQ) will require an identification document for each current administrator of Syndicates and any new administrator. Some of you have already been informed of this change from the Registraire des entreprises du Québec, which will soon come to effect. This measure has been put in place to improve the transparency of companies and to protect the public.

IDENTITY DOCUMENT

The identity documents of the administrators to be provided will have to meet certain criteria:

be issued by a government authority
contains the surname, name and date of birth of the administrator
be legible to be accepted and not expired
a photo is not required

ACCEPTED DOCUMENT

The following identity documents will be accepted:

Passport
Driving licence
Health insurance card
Canadian Permanent Resident Card
Immigration documents issued by the Government of Canada
Official identification of Canadian military, police or diplomats
Secure Certificate of Indian Status
Quebec birth certificate

EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE REQUIREMENT

This new requirement therefore comes into effect on March 31, 2023. From that date onwards, Syndicates will have to comply with this requirement and provide information for any new administrators in current update declarations.

Otherwise, they will have to ensure to respect this update when they make their annual update declaration to the REQ.

Reminder: the period for filing annual declarations to the REQ are as follow:

Linked co-ownerships¹ to Revenus Québec: Within 6 months following the end of the fiscal year
Not linked co-ownership: Between May 15 and November 15 of each year

Note¹: Linked Syndicates are those that file their annual declaration to the REQ with their provincial income tax declaration.

PARTICULARITY FOR LINKED BUSINESSES AND PROVINCIAL TAX RETURNS (PARTICULAR FOR TAXES)

Because of this new requirement, and until the Syndicate has complied, it will not be possible to file the annual declaration to the REQ with the provincial income tax return.

Therefore, be sure to check NO on line 39 of the Déclaration de revenus des sociétés (CO-17). You will have to plan to make the annual declaration to the REQ using the NEQ and the clicSéqur Express. It is also at this time that you will have to pay the annual Co-ownership registration fees.

It is advised to pay by credit card as the REQ reserves the right to refuse any annual declaration for which the fees have not been paid within 10 days of the deposit of the declaration. This is obviously a very short period of time when one considers that Syndicate cheques must normally be signed by two members before being sent to suppliers, not to mention postal delays.

SECURING ADMINISTRATORS’ PERSONAL INFORMATION

As the manager has a lot of personal information on his clients, administrators, and co-owners, this is just one more that they will have to manage and above all secure.

We therefore remind you to be careful and take all the necessary measures to protect the copies of identity documents that you receive. We also suggest that you destroy them once they have been submitted to the REQ and you have a confirmation from them that they have been accepted and processed.

AND THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS?

This new requirement only applies to administrators, so the administrator of the property of others, or the manager, will not have to provide such identification.