How Anti-Money Laundering (AML) legislation affects you
Walsh & Associates become subject to the Anti Money Legislation on 1st October 2018, this means you as a client/potential client WILL be effected and will need to provide us with certain documentation. Read on to understand more about your obligations.
Why we need to ask you for information
New Zealand has passed a law called the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (“AML Act” for short). The purpose of the law reflects New Zealand’s commitment to the international initiative to counter the impact that criminal activity has on people and economies throughout the world.
Recent changes to the AML Act mean that from 1 October 2018 Accountants must comply with its requirements. Accountants must take several steps to help combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and to assist Police identify possible criminal activity and the individuals behind it. Accounting firms offer services (such as maintaining client accounts) that may be attractive to criminals.
Under the AML Act, Accountants must obtain and verify information from prospective and existing clients about a range of things. This is part of what the AML Act calls customer due diligence (CDD). In addition, we are obliged to report certain transactions and any suspicious activity to the Police.
Customer due diligence requirements
CDD requires an Accounting firm to undertake certain background checks before providing services to clients or customers. Accountants must take reasonable steps to make sure the information they receive from clients is correct, and so they need to ask for documents that show this.
To meet our obligation under the AML Act to verify your identity, we will need to obtain certain information from you. This information includes: your full name, date of birth and address. To confirm these details, we require documents as shown below:
Identity documents
Either:
- Passport
- NZ Firearms Licence, or
- National Identity Card
- Plus proof of address (see below)
Or:
NZ Driver’s Licence AND one of the following:
- Bank statement from a registered NZ bank less than 12 months old, or
- Statement from a NZ Government agency, eg IRD, issued in the last 12 months, or
- Bank card issued by a registered NZ bank, or
- NZ SuperGold card
- Plus proof of address (see below)
Or:
- Full NZ Birth certificate, or
- NZ Certificate of Citizenship
AND
- NZ Driver’s licence, or
- NZ Defence Photo, or
- ID18+ card, or
- Police Photo ID,
- Plus proof of address (see below)
Proof of Address
- Rates Bill
- Utilities Bill
- Bank Statement
- IRD statement
- Insurance document
Trusts
Trust require further identification measures to be taken which is called Enhanced Due Diligence. For this we require:
- Trust Deed
- ID for all Trustees (as per above)
- Name and date of birth for all trust beneficiaries
- Proof of address from the Trust (bank statement or letter from lawyer)
- Source of Wealth = the source of wealth refers to to the origin of the Trusts entire body of assets or how the Trust acquired its total wealth
Other information
If you are seeing us about company or trust business, we will need information about the company or trust including the people associated with it (such as directors and shareholders, trustees and beneficiaries).
We will also need to ask you the purpose of the proposed work you are asking us to do for you.
Before we start working for you, we will let you know what information we need, and what documents you need to show us and let us copy.
If you cannot provide the required information
If we are not able to obtain the required information from you, it is likely we will not be able to act for you. Because the law applies to everyone, we need to ask for the information even if you have been a client of ours for a long time.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.