Money Laundering Regulations
Jo Sparkes of VA Pro Mag has bravely decided to tackle the thorny issue of Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) registration as anecdotally we’ve heard so many different rules regarding whether or not VAs should register and what is and isn’t allowed.
At times it feels like if you called them 10 times, saying exactly the same thing, you would get 10 different responses!
Some are clear: There is some advice on this page that says the following about accountancy service providers:
https://www.gov.uk/…/money-laundering-regulations-accountan…
“The services they provide (ASPs) can be recording, reviewing, analysing, calculating and reporting on financial information for other people. This includes: professional bookkeeping services”
So if you call yourself and advertise as a bookkeeper you definitely have to register. Others are less clear because the actual wording specifies registration is required where your work “pertains to the recording, review, analysis, calculation or reporting of financial information”
Does that mean if you do data entry input of number of hours into a spreadsheet and calculate the amount billed, even if it gets checked by an accountant, you need to register for money laundering regulations?
Whilst we appreciate that each business will operate slightly differently, we think it is only fair for HMRC (and the FCA who administrate the MLR) should be clear about what is/isn’t necessary so we can make sure that we comply.
Jo wants to hear from you (via email or this form):
- If you have contacted HMRC by phone and been told you don’t need to register under MLR, please email with what you do and why they told you that.
- If you’ve been fined by HMRC please can you also message me with a bit of detail and what you were doing that they fined you for.
- If you have been on the HMRC website and feel that the advice is conflicting. Please can you direct me to the rules/advice that you were looking at and not sure about.
- If you’re not sure if the tasks you do are relevant, please can you message me with what you do for a client so that I can itemise different tasks in my letter.
She’s going to hold these stories in strictest confidence and write a combined letter to HMRC, which hopefully will elicit a combined written response.
**EDIT: Our consultation has now finished and the resulting letter to HMRC regarding anti-money laundering regulations is available here***
UPDATE: https://www.vapromag.co.uk/money-laundering-regulations-for-virtual-assistants/