About 2 years into my tax career, the Criminal Finances Act 2017 introduced the Corporate Criminal Offence of Failure to Prevent the Facilitation of Tax Evasion (potentially the longest offence title in history!).
I provide a lot of advice in the recruitment sector, which is listed as a high-risk sector for the offence by HMRC, and as a consequence, I have been helping clients protect themselves against the risk for about four years now.
It’s still something that I find a lot of people are unaware of. Even where they are aware, many have misunderstandings or misconceptions about it. This is resulting in businesses leaving themselves open to risk.
In this episode, Samuel Dean, HMRC’s Lead for the Corporate Criminal Offence (“CCO”), gives you the information to understand the offence, how you can help businesses protect themselves against it, and provides you with behind-the-scenes HMRC insight into the CCO.
Sam has been working for HMRC since 2009, with his work centring around tax fraud, tax evasion and offshore noncompliance, and has been heavily involved in establishing HMRC’s enforcement approach and investigations in relation to CCO.
Take a listen to the episode to find out more!
Guest – Samuel Dean, HMRC
You’ll Learn
- How you can help businesses protect themselves against being liable for the CCO, and the importance of a risk assessment
- HMRC insight into the CCO (including how HMRC are enforcing it, the amount of live CCO investigations, and when we can expect to see the first prosecution)
- Myths and misconceptions around CCO (including incorrect belief that it only applies to certain types of businesses)
- The importance of, and who is considered, an associated person
Resources
HMRC guidance: Corporate offences for failing to prevent criminal facilitation of tax evasion
Sam on the Taxing Matters podcast talking about CCO: https://www.rpc.co.uk/perspectives/tax-take/taxing-matters-the-new-corporate-criminal-offence-of-failure-to-prevent-tax-evasion/