STEP’s Isle of Man branch has flagged potential issues raised by the UK Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/692) (the Regulations) which give effect to the requirement of the EU Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive to have a central register of trusts, and reporting obligations on trustees.
The branch has queried whether the Regulations (Part 5, the trusts register) only apply to persons acting in the course of a business carried on by them in the UK (Regulation 8(1)). If this is the case, then Part 5 would not apply to trustees in the Isle of Man and elsewhere outside the UK.
As the Regulations are not part of the domestic law in jurisdictions outside the UK, it is unclear whether trustees in these jurisdictions have a ‘legal obligation’ to comply with Regulation 45. If there is a legal obligation for them to report, then conflicting data-protection issues may be generated under the domestic law.
In addition, the Regulations contain sanctions (fines and imprisonment) for non-compliance that HMRC, which manages the UK’s central register of trusts, may be able to enforce against trustees who do not comply.
STEP has raised these ambiguous points with HM Treasury (HMT), which laid the relevant Regulations, in order to gain some clarity. HMT has confirmed that its interpretation is that the definition of ‘non-UK trust’ within Part 5 of the Regulations extends to all express trusts that receive income from a source in the UK, or have assets in the UK on which they are liable to pay a relevant UK tax, regardless of whether they are established outside of the UK.
In these circumstances, HMT asserts that the trustees will indeed be required to comply with the record-keeping and, where relevant, registration requirements within Part 5 of the Regulations.
STEP will keep members informed on any further developments.
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