Do UK money laundering regs extend to trusts in other jurisdictions?

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.… Read More Do UK money laundering regs extend to trusts in other jurisdictions?

October 22, 2018October 22, 2018 STEPeditorLeave a comment

What’s been happening at STEP in England and Wales?

It’s been a busy few months at STEP. Our public-facing website advisingfamilies.org marked its first birthday on 22 May. Launched as part of a wider campaign to raise public awareness of STEP and TEPs, the site has clocked up over 130,000 visits, and over 700 followers on social media. Members and their firms have done… Read More What’s been happening at STEP in England and Wales?

August 7, 2018 STEPeditorLeave a comment

The future of the Trust Registration Service

Update: 4 September 2018 HMRC would like to notify members regarding a mismatch problem with the SA950 Trust and Estates Tax Return Guide and the SA900 2017/18. The original guidance notes indicated that untaxed interest could be declared at boxes 9.2 to 9.4 when in fact, if box 9.3 is populated with ‘0’, automatic capture… Read More The future of the Trust Registration Service

June 12, 2018September 4, 2018 STEPeditor1 Comment

UK agrees company public registers for Overseas Territories

The UK government has accepted an amendment to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill which requires the Overseas Territories to establish public registers showing the beneficial ownership of companies. The amendment, introduced by Labour’s Margaret Hodge and backed by MPs from all the major parties, commits the government to assisting the Overseas Territories in setting up… Read More UK agrees company public registers for Overseas Territories

May 1, 2018May 1, 2018 STEPeditorLeave a comment

STEP Bahamas reports to the FATF Forum in Vienna

STEP was invited to attend the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Private Sector Consultative Forum in Vienna on 23-24 April. The event consisted of several breakout sessions relating to FATF’s global priorities for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) in 2018. As part of the Forum, Cecil Ferguson TEP, Chair of STEP Bahamas… Read More STEP Bahamas reports to the FATF Forum in Vienna

April 30, 2018 STEPeditorLeave a comment

Think you’re covered with a statutory notice? Watch out for a DWP claim

Update 4 July 2018: STEP has liaised with the DWP on this technical issue. Please see its response below. If you work in the probate field you will be very familiar with the process of submitting a statutory advertisement, (under the Trustee Act 1925 for England, or the Trustee Act 1958 in Northern Ireland) in… Read More Think you’re covered with a statutory notice? Watch out for a DWP claim

March 27, 2018July 10, 2018 STEPeditor4 Comments

Top 10 FATCA/CRS reporting issues

With reporting now underway in the UK for both FATCA (the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), STEP has been liaising with HMRC on some of the more common reporting issues: 1. The financial institution (FI) has to re-register and is not able to view previous returns on the… Read More Top 10 FATCA/CRS reporting issues

March 22, 2018 STEPeditor1 Comment

The Gift Aid tax gap

STEP is working with HMRC on a Gift Aid working group set up to explore options to maximise the amount of Gift Aid that charities can claim on donations, together with ways of increasing customer understanding of the system and how it works. HMRC is also investigating opportunities to improve the way that Higher Rate… Read More The Gift Aid tax gap

March 19, 2018March 19, 2018 STEPeditorLeave a comment

EU finance ministers approve changes to blacklist

When the European Union announced its blacklist of jurisdictions judged not to be cooperative on tax in December 2017 it granted several nations in the Caribbean extra time to change their tax systems to meet EU standards. That revised deadline has now passed and the EU’s finance ministers have approved a number of changes. The… Read More EU finance ministers approve changes to blacklist

March 13, 2018 STEPeditorLeave a comment

HMRC announces trustees, NOT agents, will be liable for penalties

Update 23 March: HMRC has updated its guidance to clarify that if a penalty is payable for late registration, it will be the burden of the lead trustee and not the agent. We received the following communication from HMRC on 5 March 2018: ‘On 8 December 2017, HMRC announced that while the 31 January 2018… Read More HMRC announces trustees, NOT agents, will be liable for penalties

March 5, 2018March 27, 2018 STEPeditor2 Comments

The STEP Blog

Category: Technical