What are the new offences? The new offences make “relevant bodies”, namely corporates and partnerships, strictly criminally liable for failing to prevent criminal facilitation of tax evasion by any of their “associated persons”, namely any person performing services for or on behalf of the body. Such persons include, for example, employees, agents, sub-contractors etc. The […]

The Criminal Finances Bill 2016-17 (the “Bill”) was presented to Parliament and had its first reading in the House of Commons on Thursday 13th October. In a press release on the same day, the Home Office stated that the new legislation is designed to “tackle money laundering and corruption, recover the proceeds of crime and […]

SPEED READ The UK Government has announced the proposed introduction of a new corporate offence of failing to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion; The new offence is likely to build on draft legislation produced in response to a consultation  undertaken by HM Revenue and Customs (“HMRC”) in 2015; The new offence is likely to […]

On 9 December 2015, HMRC published the summary of responses and set out that the UK government will legislate for: a new criminal offence for corporations that fail to take adequate steps to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion; tougher financial penalties for offshore evaders, including a penalty based on the value of the asset on […]