HMRC Lists Most Recent Penalties on AMPs

HMRC Lists Most Recent Penalties on AMPs

Written by Rena Neville, Head of FCS Compliance – Art Division

The number of penalties imposed by HMRC on Art Market Participants (AMPs) is accelerating.  In the most recent notice of penalties given for the six-month period from 1 April to 30 September 2023, 31 AMPs were given penalties.  Compare this with the 31 penalties issued over the 14 months spanning January 2021 (when HMRC first began issuing penalties) to March 2023.

The penalties themselves were not inconsiderable and ranged from £1,125.00 to £18,200.00.  Nine of the 31 AMPs were located in London, the rest outside the capital.

Two of the three largest penalties for the six-month period in 2023 were issued to London galleries.  One of which was the Simon Lee Gallery, which has had financial troubles in recent years; as evidenced by the appointment of joint administrators in July 2023.

Consistent with past penalties, the breaches in this batch of 31 were for failures to apply for registration with HMRC as an AMP ’in the required time’.  In the coming months, we would expect to start to see HMRC begin to impose penalties for implementation breaches, as well.  These types of breaches would include lack of an updated Risk Assessment, non-existent or weak customer due diligence, etc.  Registration and renewal are strict requirements.  Failing to keep up with these obligations has proven costly for dozens of AMPs.

We would encourage all AMPs to pay particular attention to when their annual AMP registration expires and to be sure to renew on time. Please do check your spam email boxes, as some of the automated government reminders may be getting lost there.

Finally, as many AMPs are reminded in the course of an Intervention, if/when any of the information submitted to HMRC as part of your registration changes at any point in the year, the AMP is obliged to inform HMRC of these changes within 10 days from the change. The types of changes that might trigger a duty to update your registration information include: appointing a different MLRO or Deputy MLRO, a change in ownership, or a change of directors, etc.

^{Written: April 2024}