The Trust Registration Service (TRS) which we reported on recently is now open and available to agents filing on behalf of trustees. The TRS is the UK Government’s response to the Fourth Money Laundering Directive. Access the TRS on GOV.UK.

All express UK trusts with a tax consequence in 2016/17 have to be registered along with non UK trusts with a UK tax consequence. This covers both new and existing trusts meaning the data on existing trusts is not being imported to the TRS.

The new service allows agents appointed on behalf of trustees to register trusts and complex estates online and to provide information on the beneficial owners of those trusts or complex estates.

The service was launched in July 2017 and replaces the 41G (Trust) paper form, which was withdrawn at the end of April 2017. The TRS is now the only way that trusts and complex estates can obtain their SA Unique Taxpayer Reference.

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.

As reported previously, in this first year of the 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 January 2018. This applies to new trusts only. Existing trusts must meet the 31 January 2018 deadline.

More information is available in the September’s Trusts & Estates Newsletter together with HMRC’s guidance on the TRS which is in the form of a FAQ note.