Tackling Tax Evasion — Government guidance on the corporate offences (2017)

What this document is

This is official Government guidance, dated 1 September 2017, on the corporate offences of failure to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion. Its opening section sets out the aim of the legislation, the purpose of the guidance, an overview of the offences, the initial implementation period, and the approach to investigations, penalties and sanctions.

The core of the document describes six guiding principles that organisations can follow when designing prevention procedures:

• proportionality of risk-based prevention procedures;
• top-level commitment;
• risk assessment;
• due diligence;
• communication, including training;
• monitoring and review.

Later sections cover common terminology and case studies — such as the meaning of a relevant body, an associated person, branches, subsidiaries and joint ventures — along with suggested reasonable prevention procedures for lower-risk small and medium-sized enterprises, and the next steps for organisations.

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