Trusts
Trust Administration Service
If you are a trustee we can help you deal with legal matters, tax compliance and the efficient management of the trust.
Our trust administration service relieves the trustees of much of the burden of managing the trust smoothly and efficiently. We make sure that the trust is tax compliant. We complete annual tax returns and deal with payments of tax before HM Revenue & Customs deadlines.
We use the latest computer software to keep an account of the trust assets. Most trusts require the trustees to approve an annual account and to let the beneficiaries have a copy for inspection and we can produce these cost effectively.
Our specialists will make sure that the trustees are complying with the duties set out in the Trustee Act 2000, i.e. that the trust assets are properly invested and the trustees have taken proper investment advice.
We can also minimise the risk of you breaching your trustee duties by being negligent, which could result in you being personally liable to make up any loss to the beneficiaries.
If the trustees (sometimes at the request of the beneficiaries) want to “bust the trust”, we can advise on whether the trustees have power to do this, what consents they need and what the tax implications are. We often help trustees in terminating trusts and ensuring that proper records are kept for at least six years afterwards in case of any queries from beneficiaries of H M Revenue and Customs.
The budget on 22 March 2006 radically changed the way all trusts are taxed. There is a window of opportunity until 6 April 2008 for some trusts to be changed (or even busted) and we can advise on the various options available and the consequences.
