Guidance

Register or update your money laundering supervision with HMRC

Use the service to apply to register for money laundering supervision, update a registration or to manage your account.

HMRC is a supervisory body for money laundering regulations.

Check if you need to register your business with us.

Use the online service to:

  • apply to register for money laundering supervision
  • update your registration
  • manage your account

Your registration may be cancelled if you do not pay the correct annual supervision fee or fail to notify us of any changes which may affect your money laundering regulations registration, as set out in your responsibilities under money laundering supervision.

Find out more about the fees you’ll need to pay for money laundering supervision.

Before you apply to register

Before you apply you should:

  • complete an anti-money laundering (AML) risk assessment
  • put in place policies, controls and procedures to manage and mitigate the risks you have identified — not having these will result in your application being rejected
  • add all officers, beneficial owners, senior managers and sole proprietors as responsible persons on the application
  • add all premises where supervised activity takes place

Approval check fee

You should select ‘No’ to the question ‘Has (business name) been charged an approval check fee for (responsible person)?’ if you are:

  • an estate agency business
  • an accountancy service provider
  • a letting agency business
  • a high value dealer 
  • an art market participant

If you can provide evidence that the responsible person has paid the £40 approval check fee previously, you can select ‘Yes’.

Fit and proper test

You should select ‘No’ to the question ‘Has (responsible person) passed the fit and proper test?’ if you are a:

  • money service business and trust
  • company service provider
  • newly appointed responsible person

If you can provide evidence that the responsible person has previously passed the fit and proper test for the business you are registering, you can select ‘Yes’.

Applying to register

Watch a video about how to register for anti-money laundering supervision.

How do I register for anti-money laundering supervision?

Sign in to your account to apply to register for money laundering supervision.

When you apply you must:

  • tell us about your premises
  • pay the registration fees due

Find out more about the fees you’ll need to pay for money laundering supervision.

Your application will not be reviewed until the fees have been paid.

After you’ve applied to register online

HMRC will carry out approval checks or a fit and proper test on the ‘responsible’ people you include in your application.

We will send you an email which will outline the risks of corresponding by email. If you agree to communicate using this method, we may email you tell you what you need to do to progress your application, and when a decision has been made.

We may also telephone you to explain any required actions.

We will review your application. This can take up to 45 days for new applications, but may take longer if we need to contact you for:

  • extra information
  • payment
  • account updates

We’ll send you an email when a decision has been made.

You can sign in at any time to check the status of an application and to see if your application has been approved or refused.

You can appeal the decision if you disagree with the outcome.

Annual supervision of your registration

If you’re already registered with HMRC, we’ll contact you 30 days before your annual supervision date to remind you to sign in to your account to update your registration.

HMRC sends messages to your anti-money laundering supervision account, not your business tax account. You’ll need to sign in to your account to read your messages.

If you do not complete your annual supervision within 30 days, your account will automatically expire and you’ll need to:

  • sign in to reapply
  • complete a new application
  • pay the annual supervision fee

Find out more about the fees you’ll need to pay for money laundering supervision.

After you’ve completed your annual supervision application

You can sign in to the service to check the status of an annual supervision application.

You will not get a paper certificate, and you’ll need to update your registration every 12 months.

If you no longer need to be registered with HMRC you should withdraw your application or cancel your registration.

Managing your account

After you’ve registered or completed your annual supervision you can sign in to your account to:

  • check messages sent to you by HMRC
  • update your account
  • view your records and make changes if you need to

How to sign in

To sign in, you need a Government Gateway user ID and password. If you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you first register.

You can use your personal Government Gateway account if you are registering as a sole proprietor.

You should use the business’s Government Gateway account if you are registering as any other legal entity, such as a:

  • partnership
  • limited company
  • limited liability partnership

If the business does not have a user ID, you can create one when you first register.

Start now

Problems with the service

Check if there are any current problems with the service or times it will not be available.

If you get an error message during your online application, make sure the information you’ve entered is correct.

If you still get an error message, use the ‘get help with this page’ link at the bottom of the screen you are in to report what’s happened.

Published 8 March 2019
Last updated 10 October 2023 + show all updates
  1. Information about the impact of not having policies, controls and procedures in place before you apply has been added.

  2. More information has been added about what you should do before you apply to register, how you will be contacted after you apply and what information to use to sign into your account.

  3. Updated the title and references to 'renewing your money laundering supervision' to 'updating your money laundering supervision' as this has been renamed. Updated the 'annual renewal of your registration' section because 'annual renewal' has been renamed to 'annual supervision'.

  4. First published.