Criminal Finances Act

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Simpson Wood | 28th November 2017

Criminal Finances Act

The Criminal Finances Act 2017 took effect on 30 September 2017. It makes companies and partnerships, a 'relevant body', criminally liable if they fail to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion being carried out by an employee, anyone acting on their behalf or someone acting as an agent. If found guilty, the business could face unlimited fines and potentially further consequential sanctions within their industry or profession.




A defence is available when it can be shown that 'reasonable prevention procedures' were in place to prevent the associated person from committing or facilitating the crime; or that it would have been unreasonable or disproportionate to expect such procedures to be in place.


  1. Risk assessment - the relevant body should assess the nature and extent of its exposure to the risk of an associated person committing a criminal act;
  2. Proportionality - the procedures should take into account the nature, scale and complexity of the relevant body's activities;
  3. Top level commitment - the management of the relevant body should be committed to preventing illegal acts and should foster a culture that tax evasion and its facilitation is never acceptable;
  4. Due Diligence - with appropriate procedures put in place with respect to all people who perform services for the relevant body;
  5. Communication - training staff and ensuring the message effectively gets across to all employees and agents;
  6. Monitoring and reviewing - ensuring that whatever procedures are put into place are regularly reviewed and updated and amended where necessary.

Please contact us if you require further information on this issue.

Internet link:  GOV.UK Tackling tax evasion corporate-offence