I find, when registering a trust, that I am expected to put in the UTR of
shares first held as assets of a trust when the trust was first established
(in my case 1996). I assume government stock does not have a UTR. Does Shell
have a UTR? Where would I find it?
Julian Cohen, Solicitor
I suggest that you don’t bother with such detail. HMRC are in a mess in establishing the Trust Register. They are not accurately reflecting the relevant regulations [SI.2017/692], which certainly don’t require the UTRs of companies (or other entities) shares in which are trust assets.
Ray Magill
From the slides to a recent HMRC webinar, the slide headed “Trust type” includes an option “A flat management company”. How is a flat management company a trust? It is S42 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 that requires service charges to be held generally by the landlord as payee, in trust for the contributing tenants. The contributing tenants will be the settlors, but for some modern developments that could be over 1,000 settlors. Is every tenant going to be expected to provide a national insurance number etc and what happens if a tenant refuses?
Mark Woolley
Price Bailey LLP
HMRC have so configured the Trust Register site that you can’t just miss out an item – because you can’t go on to the next page until you’ve completed this one. I managed it by putting in a fictitious UTR, but I’m not altogether happy about that. When I phoned them with this as a query I was told the solution was to write in with details. Presumably also with all changes to the trust investments since its inception
Julian Cohen, Solicitor
For the record, S.42 LTA 1987 does not apply to all flat management
companies. Where, as in the case of those affected by S.42, and many
discretionary trusts, there is a class of beneficiaries of which not all can be
identified, the Regulations recognise this, and information about even those
already in existence need not be provided. See Regulation 45(2)(d). I think HMRC
now understand this.
Ray Magill