Data Required for Registration
The data required for registration is more detailed and wider ranging than previously required. It is helpful to review this in terms of Settlors, Trustees, Beneficiaries and Trust Property. Registration details for taxable and money laundering reporting is as follows.
What data is needed for...?
Data requirements
Trust data requirements:
- Trust name
- Type of Trust
- Set-up details
- The date the Trust was created
- Unique tax reference (UTR) or apply for one
- Confirmation of being an Express Trust
- Whether the non-UK Trust has a business relationship in the UK
- Details about any UK land or property owned
You should be able to find these details in the Trust deed and from any correspondence that the Trustees may have had with HMRC.
A Trust can only be registered by using HMRC’s online Trust Registration Service.
You should decide if you want to use a company to provide Trust Registration Services to carry out Registration or if you will self-register when this becomes available.
Initial Trust registration
The lead Trustee (or Trust Registration Agent) will be required to apply for a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) and will require:
- The name of the Trust
- The type of Trust, e.g. discretionary, bare or Will Trust and how it was set up
- The Trust creation date
All Trustees have equal responsibilities for reporting/registration, but a lead Trustee must be nominated who will be the prime contact for communications/returns.
Data required by your agent or if self-registering:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- National Insurance number and address (passport if not a UK citizen)
- Telephone number
If the Lead Trustee is an organisation, the organisation’s UTR and email address are also required.
Deceased Settlors
A Settlor is an individual or an organisation who has put assets into a Trust.
You must provide their name, date of birth, date of death, National Insurance number and address.
Other Trustees
For other individuals involved in the Trust, including more Trustees and Beneficiaries, you must provide
- Name
- Date of birth
- National Insurance number (if they are a UK citizen)
- Address
Beneficiaries
Details of all known Beneficiaries of the Trust are required. If there are more than 25 Beneficiaries, the lead Trustee must keep these details.
Trust assets
Details of assets and valuations on entry are only required for Trusts with tax events, including:
- Shares
- Property and land or share of such assets
- Money
- Investments, e.g. bonds
- Other assets, e.g. art, cars, jewellery, etc.
Advice on entry taxable events should be taken in advance.
Reportable Trusts with no tax event do not require Trust Fund details to be reported or updated.
Annual Trust updates
Trustees of Trusts with chargeable events are required to update the register with any changes by 31 January following the tax year in which the change occurred.
For Trusts without a chargeable event, if there are no changes, e.g. address changes, no reporting is required. If there are changes, they must be registered within 90 days.
Trustees are required to authorise their agents to provide annual updates and/or tax returns.
The Audit
There are many hundreds of thousands of Trusts in existence but only some 156,500 were reported to be registered in 2018 according to HMRC statistics which required registration for tax purposes.
The new AML requirements will potentially require hundreds of thousands of additional Trusts to be registered most of which will not require annual tax returns to be made to HMRC, however, annual updates will be required in terms of AML reporting/changes.
If a registration service is used Trustees may benefit from an audit which may identify historic oversights as well as best practice advice for the ongoing management of the Trust assets.
Advice on Trustees, Beneficiaries short-term administration and referral to experienced investment advisers can be provided.
