UK Criminal Finances Act 2017 Section 45 - Failure to Prevent Facilitation of UK Tax Evasion (Strict Liability Corporate Offence, Reasonable Procedures Defence, Associated Person)

What UK Criminal Finances Act 2017 Section 45 - Failure to Prevent Facilitation of UK Tax Evasion (Strict Liability Corporate Offence, Reasonable Procedures Defence, Associated Person) requires

Section 45 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 (c. 22) creates the strict-liability corporate offence of failure to prevent facilitation of UK tax evasion - the second of the UK 'failure to prevent' corporate liability regimes alongside Bribery Act 2010 section 7. Under section 45(1), a relevant body (B) is guilty of an offence if a person commits a UK tax evasion facilitation offence when acting in the capacity of a person associated with B. The strict-liability structure attaches corporate liability solely on the basis of the facilitation conduct by an associated person, without requiring proof of board-level knowledge or intent. The signature defence under section 45(2) is that B had in place such prevention procedures as it was reasonable in all the circumstances to expect B to have in place, OR that it was not reasonable in all the circumstances to expect B to have any prevention procedures in place. Section 45(3) defines prevention procedures as procedures designed to prevent persons acting in the capacity of an associated person from committing UK tax evasion facilitation offences. Section 45(4) defines UK tax evasion offence (cheating the public revenue or fraudulent evasion of tax). Section 45(5) defines UK tax evasion facilitation offence. Section 45(6) requires the underlying UK tax evasion offence to have been committed. Section 45(7) defines tax to include national insurance contributions. Section 45(8) penalty: unlimited fine on indictment or summary conviction (E&W) / statutory maximum (Scotland and NI summary).

Pillar: Financial Crime, AML & Sanctions · Authority: Parliament of the United Kingdom · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated: 2026-06-03

Primary source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/22/section/45

SHA-256 integrity: 872324ed23a6af471f117bb92abf0a61fd58c999326ddd1f0b7e798bbf13aa95

Primary Citations — 7 traced to source

• Criminal Finances Act 2017 (c. 22) Section 45 (Failure to prevent facilitation of UK tax evasion offences) subsection (1): 'A relevant body (B) is guilty of an offence if a person commits a UK tax evasion facilitation offence when acting in the capacity of a person associated with B.' Published at legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/22/section/45.
• Criminal Finances Act 2017 Section 45(2): 'It is a defence for B to prove that, when the UK tax evasion facilitation offence was committed (a) B had in place such prevention procedures as it was reasonable in all the circumstances to expect B to have in place, or (b) it was not reasonable in all the circumstances to expect B to have any prevention procedures in place.'

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