The Corporate Criminal Offence (CCO) legislation was introduced in September 2017 to help prevent the facilitation of tax evasion in businesses. The legislation holds corporations liable if they fail to prevent anyone acting on behalf of their company from facilitating tax evasion. Facilitating tax evasion is a criminal offence and is subject to sanctions.
CCO legislation applies to all businesses no matter the size or services provided. If there is a chance anyone associated with the company could facilitate tax fraud, through their actions, then the company will be liable. CCO is therefore a very important legislation for companies to be aware of.
HMRC currently has 10 live CCO investigations across various business sectors. A further 22 cases are under review in sectors including: financial services, construction, oils, and software development. All companies from small local businesses to some of the largest organisations within the UK can be investigated if there is evidence of an associate within the company facilitating tax fraud.
If a company is found guilty of a Corporate Criminal Offence, they can expect to face serious consequences including unlimited fines and damage to their reputation, as it will be made public record.
At Specialist Taxation Services (Europe) we offer training courses for senior management and all other relevant employees to make staff aware of the legislation and how they can follow best practice. Our training course is an essential part in creating a defence against CCO and avoiding unlimited fines and reputational damage.
If your company does not have CCO training in place, then get in touch with us via the contact page on our website or give us a call for more information. You can also visit our website to see what courses we offer.