Pursuant to the Act of 14 December 2005, all bearer shares, for both listed and unlisted companies, should have been recorded in the issuer's shareholders' register or deposited in a securities account with a financial institution by 31 December 2013. All bearer securities which were not converted by that date were automatically converted into dematerialised form or, if the company's articles of association did not allow for this possibility, into registered form. Since 1 January 2012, a new 1% tax has been applicable to the conversion of bearer shares. From 1 January 2013 until 31 December 2013, the tax was 2%.