UK: a new corporate offence - the failure to prevent tax evasion

HM Treasury yesterday provided further information about the Government's proposals to introduce new criminal offences relating to tax evasion: see here. These include, in respect of companies, an offence of facilitating tax evasion and another of failing to prevent tax evasion. Little further information is available but it seems likely that the offence of failing to prevent tax evasion will be modelled on the new offence introduced by section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010: the failure of a commercial organisation to prevent bribery.