HM Treasury has published draft legislation and an explanatory note in respect of a new levy on professional firms and financial institutions to be known as the Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) levy. Collection of the levy will be the joint responsibility of HMRC, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Gambling Commission according to the summary information of the explanatory note. The levy will commence in 2022/2023 with details of the levy amounts, which will be tapered to the size of the entity, expected to be in Finance Bill 2021.

The new levy follows a consultation in 2020 which examined how money could be raised to fund the UK’s fight against economic crime.

The levy will apply to the anti-money laundering regulated sector with entities paying the levy as a fixed fee based on the ‘size’ band they belong to as determined by their UK revenue: small (<£10.2m), medium (£10.2m-£36m), large (£36m-£1bn), and very large (>£1bn). Entities will pay higher fees the larger their size, except small entities which are exempt.

No specific amounts have been specified in the published draft legislation. Instead, indicative ranges have been included within which the specific amounts are likely to fall. It is important to note that the final figure in the legislation will not be a range and will be a single figure.