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Anti-money laundering: why your accountant asks for documents and data

Customer due diligence, beneficial owner, periodic checks and the cash limit: what the client must provide and what changes under the 2025 rules.

Your accountant asks for documents, details of the shareholders and a signed declaration because anti-money laundering legislation requires the accountant to know whom they are working with before accepting an engagement, and to keep this information up to date for the entire duration of the relationship. If the checks cannot be completed, the accountant must decline the engagement. The 2025 technical rules have made the requirement more proportionate to risk: on some points less is asked of the client than before, but updates have precise deadlines.

The framework

The rules are set out in Legislative Decree no. 231 of 21 November 2007. Article 17 requires professionals to carry out adeguata verifica (customer due diligence) on the client and the beneficial owner whenever an engagement is accepted and, for occasional transactions ordered by the client, when they involve means of payment of 15,000 euro or more. According to the guidance of the Consiglio nazionale dei commercialisti (the Italian National Council of Chartered Accountants), for occasional professional services the 15,000 euro threshold is measured on the value of the subject matter of the service, not on the fee, and due diligence is required even where that value cannot be determined. Article 18 describes its content: identification of the client and of the beneficial owner, the purpose and nature of the service, and ongoing monitoring for the entire duration of the relationship. Under Article 17, paragraph 7, the mere preparation and filing of tax returns and the personnel administration obligations provided for by Law 12/1979 (the Labour Consultants Act) are excluded from due diligence.

The client must provide in writing, under their own responsibility, complete and up-to-date information (Article 22, paragraph 1). Corporations and other businesses with legal personality, as well as private legal entities, must obtain and keep for at least five years the information on their beneficial ownership and make it available to the professional (Article 22, paragraph 2); for partnerships, the information comes from the client’s declaration. The beneficial owner of a corporation is the natural person who owns, directly or through other companies or trust companies, more than 25 per cent of the capital; failing that, the person who controls it and, as a last resort, the person who represents or manages it (Article 20).

For chartered accountants, the operating procedures are set out in the technical rules issued by the National Council under Article 11, paragraph 2, by resolution no. 9 of 16 January 2025, replacing those of 2019. Measures are simplified (Article 23) if the risk is low and enhanced (Article 24) if the risk is high, for example where the client or the beneficial owner is a politically exposed person or deals with high-risk third countries; in all other cases they are ordinary. The National Council’s operational guidance of March 2026 links the frequency of ongoing monitoring to each level: 36 months for simplified due diligence, 24 for ordinary, 12 or 6 for enhanced. Documents are kept for ten years from the end of the service (Article 31, paragraph 3).

What changes in practice

The beneficial owner. An srl (limited liability company) has four shareholders: Anna with 50 per cent, Bruno with 25, Carla with 15 and Davide with 10. Only Anna exceeds 25 per cent and is the beneficial owner; Bruno, who holds exactly 25 per cent, is not, for now. The control criterion (shareholder agreements, dominant influence) comes into play only when ownership does not unequivocally identify the beneficial owner (Article 20, paragraph 3). From 10 July 2027, under the European anti-money laundering Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, the threshold becomes “25 per cent or more”, and Bruno will also be a beneficial owner. For Anna, the accountant asks for her name, date and place of birth, residence and tax code: the 2025 rules remove the obligation to obtain a copy of her identity document, which is needed only if the data give rise to doubts or inconsistencies (Article 19, paragraph 1, letter b). The visura (company register extract) and, where accessible, the Beneficial Ownership Register help to cross-check the data, but do not replace the client’s declaration.

Periodic checks. A sole proprietorship entrusts its bookkeeping to the accountant in March 2026, and the risk assessment leads to ordinary due diligence: the accountant will have to update the data and the declaration by March 2028, or earlier if the business or other declared data change. With a low risk, the deadline is March 2029, but simplified due diligence is in any case completed with the client’s declaration and a copy of the identity document.

The tax return alone. A client who asks only for the 730 return (the simplified return for employees and pensioners) and the related F24 payment forms is not subject to due diligence. If, in the same year, the same client also asks for advice on the sale of a property worth 200,000 euro, due diligence is required for that advice.

Cash. Since 1 January 2023, cash transfers between different persons have been prohibited from 5,000 euro upwards (Article 49, paragraphs 1 and 3-bis): a fee may be paid in cash up to 4,999.99 euro. Two payments of 3,000 euro a few days apart for the same invoice, without instalments provided for in the contract, appear artificially split and remain prohibited (Article 49, paragraph 1). Both the payer and the payee, and therefore also the professional who receives the fee, are liable to an administrative penalty of 1,000 to 50,000 euro (Article 63, paragraphs 1 and 1-ter), with the minimum and maximum multiplied by five for breaches exceeding 250,000 euro (paragraph 6). A professional who becomes aware of an infringement must report it within thirty days to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Article 51); failing that, they are themselves liable to a penalty of 3,000 to 15,000 euro (Article 63, paragraph 5).

Practical steps

• At the start of the engagement, the client delivers the declaration on their own details, the purpose of the service and the beneficial owner, with the identity document of the signatory; for companies, an up-to-date company register extract as well.
• Identification and verification of identity take place before the engagement is accepted; only if the risk is low and the deferral is necessary for the normal conduct of business may verification be completed within thirty days (Article 18, paragraphs 2 and 3).
• At the ongoing-monitoring deadlines, the client confirms that nothing has changed or issues a new declaration.
• Changes of shareholders, holdings, directors, registered office or business must be reported immediately, without waiting for the deadline.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating the declaration as a formality: providing false data or untrue information is a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment from six months to three years and a fine of 10,000 to 30,000 euro (Article 55, paragraph 3).
• Naming as beneficial owner a sham shareholder or a nominee instead of the person who actually owns or controls the company.
• Failing to report the entry of a new shareholder above 25 per cent or the appointment of a new director.
• Refusing to hand over the documents requested: without complete due diligence, the professional must refrain from acting or terminate the engagement (Article 42, paragraph 1).

References

Legislative Decree no. 231 of 21 November 2007, Articles 11, paragraph 2

17, paragraphs 1 and 7

18, paragraphs 2 and 3

19, paragraph 1, letter b)

20

22, paragraphs 1 and 2

23

24

31, paragraph 3

42, paragraph 1

49, paragraphs 1 and 3-bis

51

55, paragraph 3

63, paragraphs 1, 1-ter, 5 and 6

Law no. 12 of 11 January 1979, Article 2

technical rules of the Consiglio nazionale dei dottori commercialisti e degli esperti contabili, resolution no. 9 of 16 January 2025

operational guidance of the National Council on anti-money laundering forms, March 2026

Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, Article 52