| answer text |
<p>The UK’s Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information
on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs), set out the high-level requirements on regulated
entities to combat money laundering.</p><p> </p><p>When the EU’s 5<sup>th</sup> Anti-Money
Laundering Directive (5MLD) was introduced in May 2018, the UK was required to transpose
the requirements of 5MLD into domestic legislation, which included the expansion of
the scope of the regulated sector. The UK completed the transposition of 5MLD in October
2020.</p><p> </p><p>The MLRs are designed to detect and prevent money laundering and
terrorist financing before it occurs, both directly through the UK’s financial institutions
and through enablers who may be involved in transactions such as lawyers, accountants
and estate agents. 5MLD expanded the threshold for firms and sole practitioners who
are regulated under the MLRs, and therefore required to register for anti-money laundering
supervision, to include: letting agents, art market participants, cryptoasset firms,
and tax providers. The government consulted in 2019 on how best to include these sectors
within the UK’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime, seeking
to ensure that the regime effectively deters money laundering and terrorist financing
activity, whilst being proportionate and managing burdens on businesses and legitimate
customers.</p><p> </p><p>The UK is a global leader in the push towards greater tax
transparency, driving forwards cooperation between jurisdictions to help to tackle
tax evasion by making it harder to hide offshore financial assets. HMRC has a strong
record in tackling offshore non-compliance, whether stopping this through leading
international activity, providing easy ways for people to disclose correctly their
tax affairs, or by acting against those who are trying to deliberately cheat the public.</p>
|
|
