On 30 September 2017, The Criminal Finances Act 2017 introduced a new corporate offence of failure to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion.
The new offence of corporate, rather than an individual’s, failure to prevent criminal facilitation of tax evasion applies to companies, partnerships and LLPs. This could also include charities regardless of the fact that they do not operate commercially.
Effectively a business becomes responsible for the criminal acts of its employee and other “associated persons” including agents, contractors, suppliers and intermediaries that perform services on behalf of a business.
So what is tax evasion and how do you spot it? Read more from Julie Edmonds, Senior Associate at JPC Law here.