As of 1 March, there have been several updates and changes to the Trust Registration Service (TRS) submission process, we will outline the most relevant ones in this article.
Deadlines:
Non-taxable Trusts (registerable express Trusts) are required to be registered by 1 September 2022 or within 90 days from the date of creation. Changes to said Trusts must also be recorded within 90 days of the Trustees becoming aware of the changes. If the Trust is signed up to the Solidus 24-month service, we will require the Trustees to inform us of such changes within 14 days in order for us to ensure the updates are made on time to avoid penalties to the Trustees.
Taxable Trusts (registerable taxable Trusts – i.e., Trusts which do not have to register as express Trusts but become registerable because Trustees acquire tax liability) must be registered by 31 January (or 5 October in some cases) following the end of the tax year in which the liability rose. Non-taxable Trusts that become taxable must be recorded within 90 days.
If a Trust is taxable, the Trustees must declare the Trust is up to date on an annual basis, with the deadline being 31 January of each year.
Closed Trusts must be registered if the Trust was in existence on or after 6 October 2020. The closed Trust can be registered with the required information and closed immediately to record the fact that the Trust has ceased.
Mental Capacity:
The question regarding the mental capacity of each individual has slightly changed to include guidance on when HMRC consider a person to not have mental capacity; namely if they cannot understand, retain, use or weigh information to make decisions about their role in the Trust because of an impairment or disturbance in the functioning of their mind, such as they have a mental illness, a learning disability, dementia, a brain injury or they cannot communicate for another reason. Previously, if a Settlor deceased after the creation of the Trust, we were required to record if they had mental capacity prior to/at the time of their death. The new changes to the TRS inquire as to whether the Settlor has mental capacity at the time of registration, for this purpose, Solidus have changed the application forms to the current advice of listing the deceased Settlor has not having mental capacity.