Trustees of trusts created after 2 June 2022 that require registration should register their trust within 90 days of the date of the trust’s creation
May Day marked 4 months to go to the deadline for existing express trusts to register on the Trust Registration Service (TRS) within the deadline of 1 September 2022, so there are now less than 4 months left for trustees to act. Trustees of new trusts created before 3 June 2022 that require registration should register their trust by the same date.
Trustees of trusts created after 2 June 2022 that require registration should register their trust within 90 days of the date of the trust’s creation. From a practical perspective, it may be sensible to arrange for the trust’s registration at the same time that it is created.
Trustees who fail to register their trusts (unless exempt from registration) by the applicable deadline not only face potential penalties from HMRC but may also encounter difficulties when administering their trust.
From 1 September 2022, ‘obliged entities’ (also known as ‘UK relevant persons’), which include financial institutions and intermediaries, must ask for proof of a trust’s registration on the TRS (or exemption) when establishing a new business relationship with the trustees. It is also likely that some entities will look to ‘gold plate’ the rules and ask for proof of registration or exemption from existing business relationships.
Trustees of registered trusts can download a certificate as proof of registration here by logging into their account. The certificate can be printed or saved as a pdf file. If any changes are made to the details held on the Trust Register (for example, changes to a trustee’s or a beneficiary’s details), a new certificate should be generated.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that only around 150,000 trusts have been registered on the TRS since 2017 meaning that several hundreds of thousands of trusts (or more!) may require registration before 1 September 2022 if the trustees are to avoid potential penalties and administration problems.
We would advise trustees who have not registered their trusts yet to act sooner rather than later. The clock is ticking…..
Trustee Support Services can assist trustees with registering their trusts – full details of our services are available on our website.
