New Corporate offences of failure to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion was introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017.
This Act brings the risk of criminal liability to Firms of Financial Advisers not only as a result of their staff' actions, but also the actions of others with whom they are associated.
The Act created two criminal offences for a relevant body (ie Financial Adviser / Accountant / Solicitor etc) that fails to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion by associated persons (ie clients). The two offences are :
UK tax evasion
and
Evasion of foreign tax.
The Act focuses on who is held to account for acts that are contrary to current criminal law. By focusing on on the failure to prevent the crimes of those who act for or on behalf of the business, rather than trying to attribute criminal acts to the Firm.
Firms need to understand this risk and undertake a review of their existing systems and controls. A timely risk assessment may identify areas requiring refinement - the policies and procedures in place may already minimize the risk of Staff facilitation fraud on behalf of a Client.
HMRC have published updated guidance - a copy may be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/672231/Tackling-tax-evasion-corporate-offences.pdf
