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HMRC launches first Criminal Investigations under the new ‘Failure to Prevent’ Offence
A recent freedom of information request has revealed that HMRC is currently investigating several cases under the corporate criminal offence of failure to prevent the facilitation of UK tax evasion.
This corporate criminal offence, which was introduced in the Criminal Finances Act (CFA) 2017, places a positive obligation on companies to implement procedures to prevent the facilitation of UK tax evasion. While this offence applies to all companies, it is particularly aimed at banks, accountants and law firms, who are often regarded as unwitting ‘enablers’ of this type of crime.
Under section 45(1) of the CFA a company ‘is guilty of an offence if a person commits a UK tax evasion facilitation offence when acting in the capacity of a person associated with (the company)’. A company can defend itself if it can show the tax evasion facilitation offence was committed despite the company having had in place such prevention procedures as it was reasonable in all the circumstances to expect the company to have in place; or it was not reasonable in all the circumstances to expect the company to have any prevention procedures in place. The ‘failure to prevent’ offence can be punished by unlimited fines and orders for confiscation of assets.
The criminal investigations reported by HMRC show that some action is now being taken regarding prosecuting companies for financial crime, something the UK has been comparatively ineffective at in the past and is under increasing pressure to step up, as shown in the recent report by the Treasury Committee on anti-money laundering and anti-financial crime regime in the UK. The launching of these investigations by HMRC potentially marks a first step in the direction of pursuing effective prosecutions in this area and shaping the landscape of corporate liability in the UK in general.
It is not known how long these cases will take to investigate and it is likely that it will be many more months until we see the first prosecution in the UK for this offence. However, it is likely that the number of investigations brought under this legislation will increase over the next few years and companies should be prepared.


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Increased Investment in Personal Tax Compliance in the UK (Published in Thought Leaders 4 Private Client)
Advances in technology and increased international fiscal co-operation have made global personal tax compliance initiatives pop up in abundance in recent years. To compound the issue, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the corresponding economic fallout prompted domestic governments to increase transparency in relation to investments held by wealthy foreign individuals (with a focus on oligarchs).
In the UK, in the context of the cost-of-living crisis, public opinion certainly seems to be in favour of increased accountability for high-net-worth individuals (eg, on 9 October 2022, 63% of Britons surveyed thought that “the rich are not paying enough and their taxes should be increased”).1
HMRC is one of the most sophisticated tax collection authorities in the world and the department is making significant investments in technology in the field of compliance work; they are well placed to take advantage of new international efforts to increase tax compliance, particularly considering the already extensive network of 130 bilateral tax treaties in the UK (the largest in the world).2 The UK was also a founding member of the OECD’s Joint International Taskforce on Shared Intelligence and Collaboration (JITSIC) forum.
This article discusses the main developments in support of the increased focus on international transparency and personal tax compliance in the UK. There are other international fiscal initiatives, particularly in the field of corporate taxation, but such initiatives are beyond the scope of this article.
It should be noted that a somewhat piecemeal approach, with constant tinkering makes compliance difficult for the taxpayer and is often criticised for lacking the certainty that a stable tax system needs to thrive.
This article was first published with ThoughtLeaders4 Private Client Magazine
