REQ: new obligations for administrators now in effect

As announced in our previous article, the new obligations of the Registraire des entreprises du Québec (REQ) came into effect on March 31. In fact, it is now mandatory to specify the date of birth of each active administrator and provide a valid government identification document with the name, surname and date of birth of the administrator; notably the Quebec health insurance card, licence or passport.

The REQ also took advantage of this change to improve certain aspects of the administrator information. These are discussed in the following procedure.

HOW TO MEET THESE OBLIGATIONS

To meet these new obligations, you must file a current declaration or annual declaration with modifications.

Therefore, you will need to connect to the REQ services using the NEQ and the clicSéqur Express.

Select the type of declaration you want to make (current or annual)

2. Select the option « Produire une nouvelle déclaration ».

3. Complete as usual the information for the declaration.

4. Go to the section « ADMINISTRATEURS », select the administration one at a time and click on « MODIFIER »

5. Complete the relevant administrator fields:

1. Date of birth of the administrator in YYYY/MM/DD format
2. Upload a copy of ID
3. IMPROVEMENT: It is now possible to change the administrator’s role without having to terminate their mandate and recreate it. We welcome this improvement.
4. IMPROVEMENT: The concept of business address has been introduced. Indeed, administrators are still required to disclose their home address. However, they can now submit their business address. Therefore, when they do so, it is the business address that is visible to the general public.

6. Complete your declaration as per usual.

Publication OF THE DECLARATION

We ran a test with a current update declaration and the publication of the information was released almost instantly.

We assume that the timeline when providing information via an annual declaration will be about the same.

Considering that the delays for publishing an annual declaration are usually longer than for the current update declaration and considering the management issue for the payment of the annual registration fees, we suggest that you fulfill the obligation by means of a current declaration before making the annual update without modification.

DEADLINES FOR COMPLYING WITH THESE NEW OBLIGATIONS

You will have to comply with these new obligations at the earliest when:

A change in the Board of Directors requires a current update declaration to the REQ
The deadline for the Syndicate’s annual declaration to the REQ, being:
- Business linked to Revenu Quebec: Within 6 months following the end of the fiscal year of the Syndicate
- Not linked business: Between May 15 and November 15, 2023

MANAGEMENT OF SENSITIVE ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Since you will be collecting a certain amount of personal and confidential information on the administrators of the Syndicates and considering Bill 25, we urge you to take every precaution to ensure the security of these information:

Use secure mode of communication
Ensure that you have up-to-date, active and adequate virus protection
Keep information received in a secure file and control access to this file
Permanently delete information that is not relevant to the ongoing management of the Syndicate as soon as it is no longer useful
- Deleting the email containing the information is not enough. It must also be deleted from the “Deleted elements” mailbox (hard delete).
- Deleting the backup folder is not enough. Empty your recycling bin.

Remember that this obligation applies to all companies registered with the REQ. Therefore, all directors of management firms will have to go through the same process for their own management company.