The new offences relating to the facilitation of tax evasion in the Criminal Finances Act 2017 are the latest development in a line of new laws which extend the jurisdiction of UK legislation beyond our national borders. Echoing the terminology of the Bribery Act 2010, and the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Criminal Finances Act applies to both tax evasion offences committed within the UK and foreign tax evasion offences – that is, actions to evade foreign taxes which would be regarded as a UK tax evasion offence if the act were committed in the UK. (For further details on the new tax evasion offences, see our previous blog ‘Do you have ‘reasonable prevention procedures’ to stop tax evasion?’)
With the blurring of scope across borders, the question arises: where is the line?
Who do the Acts apply to?
- The Bribery Act
A relevant commercial organisation may be liable under the Bribery Act for failing to prevent acts of bribery by a person associated with that organisation.
A “relevant commercial organisation” here means either:
- a body which is incorporated under the law of any part of the UK and which carries on a business (whether there or elsewhere); or
- any other body corporate (wherever incorporated) which carries on a business, or part of a business, in any part of the UK.
