Failure to prevent tax evasion
Criminal Finances Act 2017
Corporate criminal liability where a person associated with the organisation facilitates tax evasion and prevention procedures were absent or inadequate.
People — Workforce Risk
Workforce Compliance, Employment Law & Tax Assurance
The greatest workforce risk is not who sits inside your organisation — it is the corporate liability created when your workforce and supply chain are not compliantly engaged and correctly taxed. Tutandos evidences compliance and control across employment law and tax, from your own payroll to the deepest sub-tier of your supply chain.
Corporate liability for non-compliant workforce and supply chain arrangements is no longer theoretical. The question is whether you can evidence reasonable prevention.
Definition
The risk lives in the supply chain
Workforce risk, in a UK regulatory context, is the corporate and personal liability an organisation carries when the people working for it — directly or through suppliers — are not compliantly engaged, lawfully employed or correctly taxed. It is a question of employment law, tax law and corporate liability, not headcount.
- Permanent employees
- Agency workers
- Contractors & consultants
- Off-payroll workers (IR35)
- Umbrella company workers
- Subcontractors & labour-only subcontractors
- Supplier & sub-tier personnel
- Labour intermediaries
The regulatory frame
Why corporate liability has moved up the agenda
Recent legislation has shifted the burden of workforce and supply-chain non-compliance onto the organisation itself — and, in some cases, its directors. Reasonable prevention procedures are now the expected standard, and the absence of them is the risk.
Failure to prevent fraud
Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act 2023
A new corporate offence of failure to prevent fraud by an associated person — relevant to payroll, supplier and labour-intermediary fraud.
Off-payroll working rules (IR35)
Chapter 10 ITEPA 2003
End-client responsibility for status determinations, SDS and the tax where a contractor is, in substance, an employee.
Transfer of liability & joint liability
Income Tax (Earnings & Pensions) Act
Unpaid PAYE and NI can transfer up the supply chain to the end client or be joint and several across the chain.
Modern Slavery Act 2015
Section 54 statements
A duty to report on slavery and trafficking risk in the organisation and its supply chain — and the due diligence behind it.
Right to work & illegal working
Immigration, Asylum & Nationality Act 2006
Civil and, increasingly, criminal liability where right-to-work duties are not met, with director-level exposure in serious cases.
Supply chain fraud
The fraud hiding inside supply chains
Workforce and tax non-compliance in supply chains is rarely accidental. It is a vector for fraud that the end client ultimately pays for — through transferred tax liability, reputational damage and enforcement action. Tutandos exposes it and puts controls around it.
Mini-umbrella & labour-intermediary fraud
Workers routed through chains of small umbrella companies to exploit employment allowance and thresholds — a structure built for tax loss that shifts liability to the end client.
Disguised employment & false self-employment
Workers who are, in substance, employees treated as contractors to avoid PAYE and NI — the exact exposure the off-payroll rules were designed to address.
CIS non-compliance & false invoicing
Labour-only subcontractors operated outside CIS, invoiced as limited companies or services to suppress tax — and to launder the disguised employment risk.
Labour exploitation & modern slavery
Underpayment, unlawful deductions, document retention and debt bondage in sub-tiers — driving both human harm and the tax evasion that usually runs alongside it.
Six questions
The questions every UK organisation should be able to answer
Workforce compliance becomes manageable when leadership can answer six questions about every engagement across the organisation and its supply chain — and evidence each one.
01
Are your workers compliantly engaged?
Employment status is right — employee, worker or self-employed — with written statements, off-payroll (IR35) determinations and lawful terms from day one.
02
Is your supply chain paying the right tax?
PAYE and NI are operated correctly, CIS deducted where due, VAT handled properly, and umbrella and labour-intermediary arrangements are genuine — not vehicles for tax avoidance or fraud.
03
Are you meeting your regulatory duties?
Right-to-work, National Minimum Wage, auto-enrolment, apprenticeship levy and Modern Slavery Act obligations are met across employees, contractors and supplier personnel alike.
04
Who carries the liability when it goes wrong?
Transfer of liability, joint and several liability, labour intermediary obligations and the corporate failure-to-prevent offences are mapped to the party best placed to control the risk.
05
Is that risk changing?
New intermediaries, restructures, status changes, sub-tier churn and shifting tax position are detected before they create exposure for the organisation or its directors.
06
Can you prove it to a regulator?
Audit trails, due-diligence records, status determinations, compliance evidence and board-level assurance that satisfy HMRC, UKVI, the GLAA, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the board.
Services
Workforce Compliance & Tax Assurance services
Each service maps to a specific UK regulatory duty and can be delivered as an assessment, a remediation programme or a continuing assurance service.
Employment Status & IR35 Compliance
Determining employment status, managing the off-payroll working rules (Chapter 10 ITEPA) and the Status Determination Statement process — ensuring inside and outside IR35 decisions are defensible and documented.
Supply Chain Tax Assurance
Assurance over PAYE, NI, CIS and VAT across the workforce supply chain — testing umbrella companies, labour intermediaries and sub-tier arrangements for disguised employment, mini-umbrella fraud and hidden non-compliance.
Modern Slavery & Labour Exploitation
Modern Slavery Act 2015 compliance, statutory statements, supplier due diligence and labour intermediary risk — guarding against the exploitation and trafficking risk that drives both human and tax harm in supply chains.
Right to Work & Immigration Compliance
Right-to-work checks, sponsor licence compliance and illegal-working exposure — proportionate controls that meet UKVI duties and limit civil and criminal liability for the organisation and its officers.
Payroll & Employment Tax Governance
Governance over PAYE, NI, the apprenticeship levy, auto-enrolment, salary sacrifice and National Minimum Wage — the day-to-day employment tax obligations that quietly create the largest corporate exposure.
Corporate Liability & Failure-to-Prevent Assurance
Assurance against the corporate failure-to-prevent offences — failure to prevent tax evasion (Criminal Finances Act 2017) and failure to prevent fraud (Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023) — and the governance that evidences reasonable prevention procedures.
Differentiator
Compliance is a point in time. Liability is continuous.
Most workforce and tax risk materialises after onboarding — when status changes, intermediaries are swapped, sub-tiers churn or the tax position drifts. Tutandos positions workforce compliance as an ongoing, risk-based control across the whole supply chain, not a one-off pre-engagement check.
The Tutandos Methodology
Assess → Govern → Protect → Monitor → Assure
Risk management is not a report. It is a continuing cycle of understanding exposure, establishing control and evidencing assurance.
- 01
Assess
Identify risk, vulnerabilities and organisational exposure.
- 02
Govern
Establish ownership, policies, frameworks and appropriate controls.
- 03
Protect
Implement practical controls proportionate to the risk.
- 04
Monitor
Continuously understand changes in the risk environment.
- 05
Assure
Provide management and boards with evidence that risks remain controlled.
Assess your workforce and supply chain risk
A short conversation is usually enough to see where your employment-law and tax exposure sits, and what proportionate prevention looks like.