Namechange for HMRC MLR
HMRC’s Anti Money Laundering Supervision (AMLS) team has changed its name to Economic Crime Supervision (ECS).
As part of continuing changes to the service, the anti money laundering supervision team (MLR) will now be knows as the Economic Crime Supervision team.
You will begin to see this new name on correspondence from April 2021. This change does not affect its responsibilities under the Money Laundering Regulations or how HMRC will interact with agents.
All your responsibilities remain the same and your existing registration will continue with them, but you will begin to see this new name being used from April 2021.
Who needs to register for MLR?
If you:
- perform bookkeeping/accountancy services for clients;
- raise invoices on a “live” accounting system like Quickbooks online, Sage Online, Xero or Kashflow; or
- you advertise these services on behalf of a subcontractor.
THEN you should be registered for anti money laundering with HMRC’s ECS unit if you aren’t already registered via a supervisory membership.
There is a specific exemption for VAs who do small bits of bookkeeping for existing clients, without advertising – but this still requires you to notify HMRC.
If your annual business turnover is not more than £30,000 and no more than 5% of your total business turnover is bookkeeping/accountancy services. It is very much designed for VAs who do small bits of admin for clients with their own accountant, rather than VAs to operate a bookkeeping business with.
More information on money laundering supervision can be accessed here: https://societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/2019/04/24/anti-money-laundering-regulations-for-virtual-assistants/