Money Laundering Update
Money Laundering Regulations - News Update
As you are probably aware, HMRC's "MLR 9 Guide to Registration" was to be updated in April to reflect feedback from businesses in their discussions with HM Treasury about the interpretation of the regulations as they apply to Trust & Company Service Providers (TCSPs). Since then, the scope of the review has been broadened not only to look again at TCSPs, but also at those who provide accounting services and/or tax advice (Accounting Services Providers (ASPs)).
The April deadline has of course been missed, and HMRC has therefore updated its website (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/mlr/latest-news.htm) to keep those who may have to register abreast of the situation. The wording in respect of TCSPs is reproduced below, but there is an identical message regarding ASPs.
6 May 2008
We would like to inform Trust or Company Service Providers of the latest position regarding updated registration guidance.
On 26 March we announced that the MLR 9 Registration Guidance for TCSPs would be updated to reflect feedback from businesses in their discussions with HM Treasury about the interpretation of the regulations as they apply to TCSPs.
We want to make sure the right businesses register with us, so we are still in the process of finalising the guidance.
We have already allowed businesses to apply to register as a TCSP without penalty until 31 May 2008. We will now set a new application deadline of a minimum of four weeks from the date on which updated guidance is published.
This will give you time to consider the impact of the updated guidance on your need to register.
- If you have not yet registered you may wish to delay registering until the updated guidance is available.
- If you have already registered with us, you do not need to do anything at this time. If you are affected by any change, we will contact you directly when the guidance has been updated.
We recommend that businesses should continue to check our latest news page for updates.
As the Institute of Interim Management understands it, until such time as there is more concrete news:
- the general provisions of the Regulations are already in force (and have been since 15 December 2007)
- the current guidance issued by HMRC does not appear to have been explicitly withdrawn in the above statement. This current guidance says that the Regulations cover director-level Interim managers and Interims who are ASPs
- there are very serious penalties for failure to comply
The IIM's recommendation therefore remains that, if you believe that you fall within the TCSP/ASP definitions in the Regulations based on the current guidance, there is really no option other than to stay compliant with the general provisions of the Regulations for the time being, regardless of whether or not you choose to take advantage of the HMRC statement permitting you to defer registration.
© IIM 2008
Tom Brass, Chairman of Institute of Interim Management - http://www.ioim.org.uk/