Somewhere in a government database sits a line naming the human being who really owns your Paraguayan company. On 11 August 2026 the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) set out how it guards that file, a day after publishing the first full usage figures for SIARA, the platform that has run Paraguay's registry of legal entities and beneficial owners since 2 January 2026.
What the MEF Says It Does to Protect SIARA Data
María del Carmen Benítez, who heads the MEF directorate for legal persons, legal structures and beneficial owners, said protection of the information held in SIARA "constitutes a priority aspect", and that the safeguards are tightened as each new function goes live.
Her list is ordinary but not trivial: electronic identity authentication to get in, user profiles and roles with every operation logged for traceability, qualified electronic signatures on certain documents, stricter validation of electronic files, and perimeter protection against denial-of-service attacks via Cloudflare. The underlying infrastructure sits with MITIC, the state technology ministry.
Treat it as a statement of intent rather than an audit result. No independent security review was published alongside it.
33,375 Entities on the Registry in Seven Months
The day before, the MEF published where the system stands. Since going live on 2 January 2026 it has enabled 33,375 persons and legal entities and processed 87,518 operations, of which 58,625 were registrations of legal representatives and 28,893 were communications to the administrative registry.
The rollout has been staged. Non-profit organizations went first in January. Sociedades anónimas (SA) and SRLs were added in March. May brought simple partnerships, limited partnerships and the branches of foreign companies.
One gap matters for readers here. EAS companies (empresas por acciones simplificadas), investment funds and trusts still file through the legacy SIMPLE platform until SIARA is extended to them. The EAS is the vehicle a lot of small foreign-owned businesses use, so check which system applies to yours before assuming.
Who Counts as a Beneficial Owner Under Ley 6446
The registry exists because of Ley 6446/2019, which created both the administrative registry of persons and legal structures and the separate registry of beneficial owners, with the finance ministry as enforcement authority. Decreto 3241/2020 supplies the detail, and Resolución MEF N° 337/2026 the current operating rules.
A beneficial owner is always a natural person, never a company. The test catches anyone who directly or indirectly holds 10% or more of the capital, controls more than 25% of the voting rights, can appoint or remove the administrative board, or exercises final control by another route written into the entity's own instruments.
Stacking a holding company on top does not remove you from the list. Indirect ownership counts, which is the whole purpose of the instrument.
Who Can See the Ownership Data, and Who Cannot
This is the question people actually ask, and the answer is less alarming than the word "registry" tends to suggest.
Paraguay does not publish an open, searchable directory of company owners the way the United Kingdom does. Access under the law runs to state bodies, to the financial-sector institutions carrying anti-money-laundering duties under Ley 1015/1997, and to tax authorities, prosecutors and courts working on money laundering, tax evasion or terrorist financing.
What is published is much thinner: a compliance list, refreshed twice a year, naming the entities that met their obligations. A roll of who is in good standing is not a map of who owns what.
Deadlines and Penalties for a Paraguayan Company
Three dates govern the obligation. A newly formed entity has 45 business days from incorporation to file with the administrative registry. Any change to declared information must be reported within 15 business days. And the declared data has to be brought up to date by 30 June every year.
The penalties are the part worth taking seriously. Ley 6446 provides for direct fines of 50 to 500 daily minimum wages, or up to 30% of the profits or dividends due for distribution. Non-compliance can also block your RUC and cut off access to financial services.
At the 2026 minimum wage of ₲3,044,000 a month, that band works out at roughly US$1,000 to US$9,800 on our own arithmetic. Losing the use of the RUC costs more than the fine does.
What This Means If You Own a Company in Paraguay
Three practical points, none of them dramatic.
The obligation is administrative and unavoidable rather than something a structure can be built around. If you hold a Paraguayan SA, an SRL or a branch of a foreign company, somebody has to keep its file current, and that somebody is usually your local accountant. Confirm it is happening instead of assuming it is.
Disclosure to the state is also not disclosure to the public, and offshore marketing conflates the two relentlessly. Paraguay's arrangement is ordinary international practice, and the same logic sits behind automatic exchange of financial information.
Finally, this belongs with e-invoicing and a tax take built on enforcement rather than higher rates as one continuous direction of travel. Paraguay keeps building visibility into its own economy while leaving the rates alone. Our guides to forming a company here and to the RUC and its filing obligations cover what that looks like day to day.
US citizens and green-card holders: a Paraguayan registry filing changes nothing about your position. The United States taxes worldwide income on the basis of citizenship, and you may carry separate US reporting duties on your own entities that a Paraguayan disclosure does not satisfy. Take advice from a US-qualified professional.
Frequently Asked Questions About SIARA and Beneficial Owners
Does my Paraguayan company have to register in SIARA?
If it is an SA, an SRL, a simple or limited partnership, a non-profit or a branch of a foreign company, yes. EAS companies, investment funds and trusts still file through the legacy SIMPLE platform until SIARA reaches them. Either way the underlying obligation comes from Ley 6446/2019.
Is Paraguay's beneficial-owner registry public?
No. Access is limited to state bodies, financial institutions with anti-money-laundering duties, tax authorities, prosecutors and courts. Only a semiannual compliance list, naming the entities that have met their obligations, is published openly. There is no public search showing who owns which company.
What happens if I miss the annual registry update?
Declared data must be updated by 30 June each year. Ley 6446 allows fines of 50 to 500 daily minimum wages or up to 30% of distributable profits, plus RUC blocking and restricted access to financial services. Regularizing the filing is what lifts those restrictions.
Running a company in Paraguay, or about to start one? These filings are routine right up until one is missed, and they take minutes to verify. Get in touch.
Disclaimer: This article is general information, not legal, tax or compliance advice. Registry rules, deadlines and platform coverage are still changing as SIARA is extended. Confirm your own obligations with the MEF directorate or a qualified Paraguayan adviser before you act.
Sources
- ▹ABC Color: SIARA refuerza controles para proteger datos de empresas y beneficiarios finales, afirma el MEF
- ▹ABC Color: SIARA ya habilitó a 33.375 personas y estructuras jurídicas y procesó más de 87.000 solicitudes
- ▹MEF: SIARA, Dirección General de Personas y Estructuras Jurídicas y Beneficiarios Finales
- ▹BACN: Ley N° 6446/2019, registro administrativo de personas y estructuras jurídicas y de beneficiarios finales
About the author
Yannick Schroth
Founder · Paraguay relocation advisor
Lives in Asunción and guides international nomads, entrepreneurs and investors toward residency, a cédula and a tax-efficient structure in Paraguay.
