The Countdown is on – 102 Days to Go
How time flies; we seem to have been speaking to clients about the requirement to register any existing trusts with the Trust Registration Service for quite a while now, but the days are rolling on and there are now just 102 days until the deadline date of 1st September 2022 for trusts to be registered.
As at 28th April 2022, the Trust Registration Service had received only 153,241 trust registration applications since it began full operation in June 2017 (initially, the service was only available for trusts that needed to report tax liabilities).
It is understood that there are up to one million express trusts that need to be registered by 1st September 2022. There will likely be a surge of trusts being registered as the deadline approaches, and one thing we do know from past experience is that online systems may buckle with the increased number of people accessing the systems, so don’t delay, register trusts now to allow sufficient time to ensure you are not subjected to the penalty regime, yet to be determined, for late submissions.
To recap, previously, only trusts that needed to report a tax liability were required to register with HMRC, this changed with the introduction of the Fifth Anti Money Laundering Directive, which actually came into force on 6th October 2020.
Most trusts are now required to register; the main types of trusts that aren’t required to register are:
any holding life cover only policies where the trust was established before 6th October 2020 with an initial sum gifted, in addition to the life policy, of less than £100,
trusts set up to receive death benefits from pension or death in service schemes (those often referred to as Spousal Bypass Trusts); on death of the member, when lump sums are then paid into these trusts, they will need to be registered at that point
Will Trusts where less than two years have elapsed since the Deceased’s death.
Data from the register is only able to be released in certain circumstances to those with a legitimate interest; “legitimate interest” basis is basically if this relates to an investigation into money laundering or terrorist financing.
As we have previously explained, we are not able to register trusts for you; you should have access to the information that will be required (such as Trustee and beneficiary names, dates of birth, an outline of the assets of the trust, the date trust was established), but if clients do require any further information from us, then please contact your financial planner.
