UK: the corporate criminal offences of the failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion - awareness and impact

HMRC has published research undertaken by Ipsos MORI regarding the new corporate criminal offences relating to the failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion (as found in Part 3 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017): see here (pdf).

Given that these offences were, according to the report, designed to "drive a cultural and behavioural shift among companies and partnerships to take an active and increased responsibility for preventing the facilitation of tax evasion" it seems disappointing that over two-thirds of those interviewed - 72% in fact - were unaware of the new offences. Only 12% of respondents - and there were 1,002 in the survey - were aware of the new offences and the implication of them for their business.

Note:

The Government has provided information and guidance about the offences here.