Money Laundering Regulations

Administration

If you have the facilities, the simplest way is for you to scan or photo and email the relevant items. We need:

1. A primary current photo document from a government source, such as a passport or photo-card driving licence.

2. A secondary proof of address with your name on it, ideally a utility bill within the last three months. Mobile phone bills are not acceptable but a driving licence is, as long as the primary proof is the passport.

Alternatively you can make good quality photocopies and bring them in or post them; or you can come and we will scan them here (but please tell us you are coming).

Our Responsibilities

There was a time when accountants were protected from prosecution for tax evasion (other than their own!) on the principle that ultimate responsibility for any under-declared tax was solely that of the client/taxpayer. This Three Wise Monkeys defence was effectively abolished in 2007.

Deliberately underpaid liabilities are 'proceeds of crime' because the money not paid over is available to the miscreant taxpayer to spend elsewhere.

If an accountant knowingly permits underpayment because of false accounting or statutory return entries, or if he or she could reasonably have been expected to identify such entries from the client's records, prosecution could result in an unlimited fine and up to five years in prison.

If an accountant, without making any submission, becomes aware of such evasion and fails to report it, the same penalties apply.

There is no such thing as an off-the-record chat with your accountant. If you tell us anything that indicates you have evaded or intend to evade tax or cause any other fraud, we will require you to rectify it. If you refuse to do so, as above we are obliged in law to make a report to the authorities.

All tax evasion means everybody pays more - even the person doing the evading, when they go out to buy goods and services or pay their council tax or whatever...and his or her family and 'friends'...

But even if we didn't care about our clients - which of course we very much do - clearly we can never put ourselves at risk of prosecution, which would close our business and put us all out of work.