Managing our tax evasion risks under the Criminal Finances Act 2017

This page outlines FreeAgent’s position in relation to the Criminal Finances Act 2017, which introduced new criminal offences for companies that fail to prevent ‘associated persons’ from facilitating tax evasion. Associated persons are employees, agents and others who provide services for or on behalf of the company.

FreeAgent’s approach to tax evasion

At every level of the company, we are committed to complying with all of FreeAgent’s legal and regulatory obligations and we do not tolerate the facilitation of tax evasion by any of FreeAgent’s associated persons. We take a risk-based approach to identifying and preventing tax evasion and we maintain procedures to safeguard against the possibility of our associated persons facilitating tax evasion.

What we expect from our customers and suppliers

We intend to deal only with customers, suppliers and other associated persons who are tax-compliant and we will not facilitate any transactions that seek to circumvent or abuse tax laws. We expect our customers and suppliers to provide reasonable assistance with our due diligence.

Demonstrating our commitment to preventing the facilitation of tax evasion

We conduct risk assessments across the business regularly to assess both the risk of FreeAgent’s associated persons facilitating tax evasion and the effectiveness of our existing prevention procedures. This is an ongoing process and we will continue to adapt and strengthen our prevention procedures appropriately.