UK Autumn Budget 2021 - The Fight Against Economic Crime

Posted by Ince on 2nd November 2021 -

Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivered his Autumn Budget and Spending Review on 27 October, which he stated that "today’s Budget does begin the work of preparing for a new economy post Covid."

As reported, this includes a new Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy.

The Finance Bill 2021-2022 will establish the Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy in legislation.

The Levy will be charged on entities with a turnover in excess of £10.2 million that were subject to anti-money laundering regulations in the preceding financial year, such as accountants, lawyers, estate agents, banks, casinos and art market participants. 

The Levy will commence in the financial year running from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. The FCA, HMRC, and the Gambling Commission will collect the levy from their own AML-supervised populations, with HMRC also collecting the levy for the entities supervised by the 22 legal and accountancy professional body supervisors.

As it is estimated that serious and organised crime costs the UK at least £37 billion each year. The new Levy is part of the UK Government’s wider objective, to develop a long-term “sustainable resourcing model” to tackle economic crime.