Under UK law a share cannot, at one and the same time, be
registered on more than one register.
The rule applies even as regards overseas branch registers
(these are branch registers of members resident in the country to
which the register relates). Under Companies Act 1985/SCH14/para4,
a company that maintains an overseas branch register has to keep a
duplicate thereof at the place where its principal register is
kept.
And “no transaction with respect to any shares
registered in an overseas branch register shall, during continuance
of the registration, be registered in any other register” -
see SCH14/para5.
Shares on the overseas branch register of a UK company are
therefore situated, for Inheritance Tax purposes, in the country
where the register is kept.
Under Companies Act 1985 S362 a company may maintain an
overseas branch register. The countries and territories in which
overseas branch registers may be kept are specified in SCH14.
Companies Act 1985 S362 (4) and (5) enable the provisions as to
overseas branch registers to be extended by Order in Council to
countries within the jurisdiction, or under the protection, of the
Crown.
