I have been asked by my colleagues in Transformation to remind you about the new Trust Registration Service (TRS) which allows trustees and agents to register their trust and complex estates online and provide information on the beneficial owners of the trust or estate.
The new service was launched in July 2017 for trustees and replaces the 41G (Trust) paper form, which was withdrawn at the end of April 2017. This is now the only way trusts and complex estates can obtain their SA Unique Taxpayer Reference.
The new TRS is now available for agents to use. As part of this online process, agents will be taken through the steps to create an Agent Services account before they can register on behalf of trustees.
In this first year of TRS, to allow sufficient time to complete the registration of a trust or complex estate for SA and provide beneficial ownership information, there will be no penalty imposed where registration is completed after 5 October 2017 but before 5 December 2017. Where the trust is already registered for SA, 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 2018.
The new service will provide a single online service for trusts to comply with their registration obligations. This will improve the processes around the administration of trusts and allow HMRC to collect, hold and retrieve information in a central electronic register.
You can find more information in the September HMRC Trusts and Estates Newsletter.
You can also watch a recording of the 8 September 2017 Trust Talking Points meeting.
