{"id":6473,"date":"2025-07-10T10:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6473"},"modified":"2025-07-10T09:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:12:16","slug":"are-you-on-hmrcs-radar-the-rising-cost-of-money-laundering-compliance-breaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/are-you-on-hmrcs-radar-the-rising-cost-of-money-laundering-compliance-breaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you on HMRC\u2019s radar? The rising cost of money laundering compliance breaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HM Revenue &amp; Customs (HMRC) recently published its latest round of penalties for businesses breaching money laundering regulations, and the numbers should make any business owner sit up and take notice.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Between October 2024 and March 2025, HMRC fined 336 businesses a total of over \u00a33.2 million for anti-money laundering (AML) failings.<\/p>\n<p>If your business operates in certain sectors, you may be legally required to register with HMRC for supervision under the Money Laundering Regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Failing to comply or register could cost you thousands.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Could your business be affected?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Sectors that need to comply include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Estate and letting agents<\/li>\n<li>Company formation agents<\/li>\n<li>Art market participants<\/li>\n<li>High-value dealers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your business carries out activities in these areas, even on a small scale, you may need to register with HMRC and follow strict AML rules.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How do the fines work?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The penalties are far from trivial.<\/p>\n<p>For example, HMRC applies a \u00a35,000 fine for every three months your business should have been registered but was not.<\/p>\n<p>If you are more than a year late, an extra \u00a3200 per period is added on top.<\/p>\n<p>The fines can sometimes be reduced based on your gross profit, whether you came forward voluntarily, or if you pay the penalty quickly.<\/p>\n<p>HMRC has the power to adjust the fine to make sure it is appropriate, and they usually add a \u00a3350 administration fee on top.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Do not wait for HMRC to find you<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>One of the most important factors in reducing a fine is whether you come forward voluntarily. If HMRC discovers the breach first, the penalties are often far higher.<\/p>\n<p>The longer you leave checking whether your business should be registered, the bigger the risk.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any doubts, our team can help you check whether you need to register for Money Laundering Regulations and help with your application to HMRC.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We can also support you with policies to remain compliant and help with voluntary disclosures if you think you may have breached the rules. Contact us today. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HM Revenue &amp; Customs (HMRC) recently published its latest round of penalties for businesses breaching money laundering regulations, and the numbers should make any business owner sit up and take notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,125,56,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6474,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions\/6474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}