Trust Tax

Trusteeship carries tax duties most trustees never volunteered for: annual self assessment at trust rates, registration and ongoing updates on HMRC's Trust Registration Service, inheritance tax charges that arrive on anniversaries rather than events, and certificates beneficiaries need for their own returns. The duties are personal to the trustees — and family trustees, appointed for their judgement rather than their tax knowledge, carry the same liability as professionals.

Acumon acts as tax advisor to trustees of UK family and will trusts: we keep the trust compliant year to year, calculate the charges before they surprise anyone, and advise trustees and settlors on the decisions — distributions, appointments, windings-up — where tax follows the choice.

Trust Returns and Annual Compliance

Most trusts with income or gains must file an annual self assessment return, applying rate rules that differ sharply from personal tax — discretionary trust income is taxed at top rates through the tax pool mechanism, and CGT allowances for trustees are reduced. We prepare the returns, run the tax pool so distributions carry the credits they should, and provide beneficiaries with the R185 certificates their own returns depend on — the piece of trust compliance most often missed entirely.

The Trust Registration Service

Registration on the TRS now extends far beyond taxable trusts — most UK express trusts must register even with no tax to pay, keep their records updated within set deadlines, and provide proof of registration to banks and advisors who are obliged to ask for it. Bare trusts holding property or investments for children are caught more often than families realise. We assess registrability, complete registrations and keep the record current as trustees and beneficiaries change.

Ten-Year Charges, Exit Charges and IHT

Relevant property trusts face inheritance tax on a timetable of their own: periodic charges at each ten-year anniversary and exit charges when capital leaves, both calculated through a mechanism intricate enough that unrepresented trustees frequently miss the anniversary altogether. We diarise the anniversaries, value and calculate properly, file the IHT accounts, and — this is the planning half — model distributions around the timetable, because the same appointment made before or after an anniversary can carry a very different charge.

Advice to Trustees, Settlors and Estates

Beyond compliance sits judgement: whether a trust still earns its keep against current tax costs, how to wind one up cleanly, how appointments interact with beneficiaries' own positions, and how trusts arising under wills should be administered or varied. We advise trustees and families together, alongside our probate and estate practice — and alongside our inheritance tax planning service where the question is whether a trust should exist at all.

What You Get With Acumon

• Annual trust self assessment returns at trust rates, with tax pool management
• R185 certificates so beneficiaries' returns reconcile with the trust's
• Trust Registration Service registrations, updates and evidence for banks
• Ten-year anniversary and exit charge calculations, diarised in advance
• IHT accounts prepared and filed for relevant property trusts
• Distribution timing modelled against the ten-year charge cycle
• Trust wind-ups executed with the tax consequences quantified first
• Will trusts administered alongside our ICAEW-accredited probate practice

Why Acumon for Trust Tax?

• Many of the firm's qualified tax advisors previously worked for HMRC
• In-house Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA), qualified by the Chartered Institute of Taxation
• All 90 of the firm's professionals are based in the UK
• ICAEW-accredited to administer probate — trust and estate work handled in one practice

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.