HMRC has bowed to pressure from agents and stakeholders and has announced a further extension to the deadline for new trusts to register on its online trust registration service (TRS), designed to replace the 41G paper form which was withdrawn at the end of April 2017
HMRC originally extended the deadline for new trusts to register from 5 October to 5 December, but that has now been pushed out further to 5 January 2018.
Trusts which have incurred a liability to income tax or capital gains tax (CGT) for the first time in the tax year 2016/17 will need to complete registration on the TRS by no later than 5 January 2018. This extension is only for the first year of the TRS.
The new service was launched in early July for trustees and is intended to offer a single online service for trusts to comply with their registration obligations, with the aim of improving the processes around the administration of trusts, and allowing HMRC to collect, hold and retrieve up to date information in a central electronic register.
The TRS online service is now the only way trusts and complex estates can obtain their self-assessment unique taxpayer reference.
HMRC said agents would be able to use the service from October. However, that month CIOT and ATT both wrote to HMRC requesting extensions to the deadline for registering new trusts and reporting on existing trusts using TRS. They pointed out that the TRS was first made available to agents on 17 October 2017, but only if agents can obtain access to a new agent services account (ASA) which was not fully live, with no indication when full access would be made available
Although HMRC has agreed to extend the registration deadline for new trusts, as CIOT and ATT requested, the deadline for existing trusts to register on the TRS remains unchanged at 31 January 2018. CIOT and ATT had asked for an extension from 31 January 2018 to 5 April 2018.
Under existing self-assessment rules, the trustees (or their agents) must register details of a trust with HMRC by 5 October of the year after a liability to income tax or CGT first arises. The registration process, which will need completing via TRS, will include providing information about the beneficial owners of the trust. In subsequent years, or where the trust is already registered for self-assessment, the trustees (or their agent) of either a UK or non-UK (express) trust that incur a UK tax liability are required to provide beneficial ownership information about the trust, using the TRS, by 31 January after the end of tax year.
Report by Pat Sweet
