Criminal Finances Act 2017

BDO UK | CRIMINAL FINANCES ACT 2017

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CCO ECOSYSTEM FAILURE TO PREVENT

While the CCO defines new offences in terms of failing to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion, the approach to the legislation aligns very closely to defences as set out in the Bribery Act, setting a foundation for defining ‘failing to prevent’ in the future. There is a clear overlap with AML and ABC in what organisations are required to do to demonstrate a culture within their business that focuses on the failure to prevent economic crime. At the same time, HMRC is seeking to include CCO within the criteria of the Business Risk Review with a need to demonstrate a focus on the “potential liability under the corporate criminal offence (CCO) legislation and can evidence that it has considered its need for procedures to prevent its associated persons from criminally facilitating tax evasion.” Finally, and importantly, we have seen letters from HMRC clearly linking a failure to identify carousel and VAT fraud in the supply chain as a failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion. If you would like to talk about CCO or its wider impact (or any of the above), please reach out to one of the team.

Criminal Finances Act 2017

ABC Anti-Bribery and Corruption

AML Anti-Money Laundering

BEPS Base Erosion and Profit Shifting

BRR Business Risk Review

IR35 Off-payroll working through an intermediary

MTIC Missing Trader Intra Community Fraud (Carousel fraud)

PCRT Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation

PDCF Profit Diversion Compliance Facility

PoTS Publication of Tax Strategy

SAO Senior Accounting Officer

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