HMRC guidance takes priority where BAMF misses 2026 AML changes

Art market participants should follow HMRC’s Part 1 guidance where the British Art Market Federation guidance conflicts with the 2026 money-laundering amendments. HMRC says BAMF guidance does not reflect those changes, and its replacement sector guidance is still awaiting ministerial approval. In the meantime, firms must follow Parts 1 and 3 alongside BAMF guidance, applying HMRC’s stated priority where the amended rules are involved.

The changes include replacing the €10,000 art-market threshold with £10,000GOV. Regulation 14 covers businesses trading in art or acting as intermediaries where a transaction or linked transactions meet that valueLegislation, and freeport operators where art stored for a person or linked persons reaches the thresholdLegislation. The trading limb excludes sales of art created by, or attributable to, the sole practitioner or a member of the firm.

Under amended regulation 27(7C)(a), an art market participant must also apply customer due diligence to an occasional art trade worth £10,000 or more, whether executed in a single operation or several operations that appear linkedLegislation. Other triggers remain, including establishing a business relationship, suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing, and doubts about identification information.

Enhanced due diligence now assesses whether a transaction is unusually complex or unusually large in light of its nature. The country-based rule uses the FATF list of High-Risk Jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action, rather than both that list and the increased-monitoring list. Other risk-based enhanced-due-diligence grounds remain. The amendments also add the registrar of companies to supervisory authorities’ cooperation duties. These relevant changes took effect on 30 June 2026.

Firms must consider HMRC’s art-market risk assessment when assessing their own business. Risk assessments and controls must address the firm’s actual services and customers; HMRC’s compliance handbook says generic purchased documents are unacceptable where they are not tailored to those circumstances. Compliance visits should examine whether firms considered the relevant guidance and risk assessment, with the applicable guidance depending on the date.

There is a material inconsistency to address when using the risk assessment: it says the risk-assessment and control requirements apply only to cash transactions above the AMP thresholdGOV. The statutory art-trading and intermediary definition instead turns on transaction value and contains no cash-payment restriction.Legislation The separate high-value-dealer definition does contain a cash condition. The compliance handbook calls for checks across other supervised sectors where a firm also conducts those activities, including as a high-value dealer.

HMRC says registered art market participants will receive an email when the replacement guidance is published, at which point BAMF guidance will cease to be in effect. The current notice therefore signals an interim arrangement, not that BAMF guidance has already been wholly withdrawn.

The legal basis is the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, as amended by the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2026, particularly the latter’s regulations 9, 14 and 19 on thresholds and due diligence.