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France: Why your UK accountant, solicitor and financial adviser are now tax informants

THE NEW LAW

Tax evasion is now a money laundering offence and all of the laws which apply to drug barons and terrorists, equally apply to tax evaders. New UK laws commencing in full in March 2004 now impose an obligation on your accountant, solicitor, and financial adviser to secretly report any client they suspect is evading tax – even if the evasion relates to another country. If they do not report you, they can go to jail. If your adviser hints in any way that they are making a report, that too is an imprisonable offence. There is no minimum limit – even 10p must be reported. There is no time limit.

These new laws do not apply in France.

WHY HASN’T MY ACCOUNTANT OR SOLICITOR OR

Whilst they must report any suspicious transactions, they also must not hint in any way to you that they might be making a report. If they were to hint about it, they would have committed the crime of “tipping off”. As of August 2003, over 75 per cent of the professions had received training about these new regulations. Your accountant, financial adviser or solicitor is not obliged to notify you of the new laws, especially if in so doing they are running the risk of tipping you off.

WHAT ABOUT CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY IN THE UK?

These new laws override client confidentiality as we have come to understand it. It is a criminal offence not to report you. It is also a criminal offence to hint in any way that a report may be made. Your accountant, solicitor of financial adviser has to deny making a report if asked. The only time when client confidentiality exists is if you were to consult your advisers about actual criminal charges being made against you.

It is wrong for the adviser to alert the client in any way. These laws apply not only to professional advisers but also bank managers, antique dealers, estate agents and many others.

SUPPOSE MY ACCOUNTANT OR SOLICITOR OR FINANCIAL ADVISER IS JUST “SUSPICIOUS” BUT HAS NO PROOF?

Then they must still report you. The term “suspicion” falls well short of proof or knowledge. They have to report anything which is suspicious, and it is not a defence to claim that they had no proof. Indeed, it is not a defence to claim that they the adviser was not suspicious in circumstances when they should have been.

“A suspicion that something exists is more than a mere idle wondering whether it exists or not; it is a positive feeling of actual apprehension or mistrust amounting to a slight opinion, but without sufficient evidence” Chambers dictionary


More pages

Page 1: THE NEW LAW
Page 2: DOES THE ACCOUNTANT OR SOLICITOR HAVE TO INVESTIGATE FURTHER BEFORE REPORTING?
Page 3: SUPPOSING I HAVE AN OFFSHORE PROPERTY IN A COMPANY AND I AM UK RESIDENT?

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