Trust Registration Service

The Trust Registration Service (TRS) was introduced in 2017 – it is an online register of Trusts for HMRC, and asks for details such as the date the Trust was created, the Settlor, the Trustees, the Beneficiaries and the assets of the Trust. It was introduced to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.

Since the inception of TRS, any Trust with a UK tax liability of any kind has been required to register via the TRS.

Recent anti-money laundering legislation means that the scope of the TRS has been extended to include many forms of Trusts, even where there is no tax liability.

The deadline for registering all Trusts via the TRS is 1 September 2022.

Some Trusts may be exempt from registration but the exemption list is limited.

For example, Trusts that hold investment bonds, which can be assigned or surrendered at any time (and do not just pay out on the death of the life assured), are required to register. Some Bare Trust structures may also need to register.

If you have any form of Trust structure, and need assistance to understand if the Trust needs to register under the TRS (and if so, you would like us to register the Trust on your behalf), please get in touch.

Other potential compliance reporting

If the Trust has a connection to an individual in an overseas country (that is, the Settlor, Trustee or Beneficiary) the Trust may have to comply with overseas reporting requirements and make annual reports to overseas jurisdictions via HMRC.

This relates to rules regarding anti-money laundering procedures and trying to aid tax transparency across borders.

If you need assistance to understand if any Trust structure you are involved in needs to comply with overseas reporting (commonly via what is known as FATCA or CRS), please get in touch.