Q&As

What are the differences between the two proposed corporate offences involving the facilitation of tax evasion, who can commit the offences and what defences are going to be available?

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Produced in partnership with James Brockhurst of Gowling WLG
Published on: 28 April 2017
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Disclaimer

This Q&A is based on the draft Criminal Finances Bill (CFB) 2017 as at 23 April 2017, at which point it had not received Royal Assent. For information on the current stage of the Bill in Parliament, see PrACTice Note: Criminal Finances Act 2017—progress through Parliament [Archived]. Relevant Bill documents can be accessed via the Parliament website here.

The three steps

The two offences are (i) the domestic and (ii) the foreign tax evasion offences. Both offences have three steps that apply, which require that:

  1. •

    there is tax evasion by a taxpayer

  2. •

    the criminal facilitation of the tax evasion by an 'Associated person' of the relevant body who is acting in that capacity. This requires deliberate intent to commit the offence—negligent or careless actions resulting in tax evasion will not be caught, and

  3. •

    the relevant body failed to prevent its Representative from committing the criminal

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Assent definition
What does Assent mean?

A method of transfer of estate property only available to personal representatives (PRs). An assent activates the gift of estate property to the beneficiary and, after assent, the PRs hold the asset on trust for the beneficiary until any further formalities to transfer the legal title have been complied with.

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