Criminal Finances Act (APSCo Quarterly Board Pack Briefing)
Overview: The Criminal Finances Act came into force on 27 April 2017 and introduces new corporate offences of failing to prevent the facilitation of UK or foreign tax evasion. Part 3 will come into force through a Statutory Instrument in Autumn 2017. It introduces a new corporate criminal offence for businesses that fail to put in place reasonable procedures to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion by their employees and representatives. It will apply to non-UK based, as well as UK based, corporations and partnerships which fail to prevent their representatives from criminally facilitating a UK tax loss.
Impact: Potentially high impact as corporations can be liable for not doing enough to stop tax evasion either here or abroad, although criminal intention and fraudulent evasion will be required for a successful prosecution. There is now a criminal risk for recruitment companies utilising non-compliant umbrella and management companies in the UK and abroad and those with lax policies on the “183 day rule” for overseas limited company contractors.
Action: undertake a risk assessment of the products and services offered, as well as supplier compliance.
Further information: Read APSCo, Crescenzi Consulting’s update – contact me for a copy.
Source: Rina Durban on LinkedIn August 24th 2017