Trust registration penalties eased

The scope of the Trust Registration Service (TRS) has been extended to include non-taxable trusts. You can find out which trusts need to be registered here. The deadline for the initial registration is 1 September 2022, however, as this requirement is still new, HMRC has confirmed that no penalty will be charged for a “first offence”. This covers both failure to register and late registrations.

As ever, there is an exception to this easement; If the trustees deliberately don’t register the trust on time, or there are repeated offences, the penalty will be as high as £5,000 per offence.

You may have a trust that needs to be registered that you aren’t even aware of, as it isn’t just formal trusts that fall within the scope of the requirements. For example, a bare trust arrangement, land and property where the legal owner and beneficial owners differ or will trusts.