I recently registered an old trust on the TRS because there was an IHT liability in 2016/17. I answered “no” to all the questions about income tax and CGT liabilities, making
it clear that the only tax liability was IHT. The only asset in the trust is an investment bond.
HMRC have now created a UTR for the trust and intend to issue tax returns going back to 2013/14. Of course, I can’t speak to HMRC to get this sorted because I am not formally
appointed as tax agent for income tax purposes, and when the client tried to call HMRC to sort it out they proceeded to ask him a collection of technical questions which, understandably, he struggled to answer. So it seems the only way to get the tax returns
cancelled is for me to apply to be appointed as tax agent and then speak to HMRC.
I assume I am not alone with this problem, but I do hope this is not going to happen every time!
I had the same problem with a handful of Will Trusts - the date of death is the date the trust was established but no assets received for say 2-3 years. Even though I answered the TRS submissions saying there were no tax liabilities for the intervening years, Returns were subsequently issued for all those years! I have successfully appealed in all instances and had the Returns withdrawn. However the TRS questions have changed in the meantime as they do not now ask whether tax liabilities arise in specific years since the trust was established. However given that the TRS is used for tax liabilities other than those arising as a result of a SA900 I think that any appeal for unnecessary Returns should be successful.
Diana - I think you are almost certainly going to have to register as agent in your case to try and make any headway. Although it may just be easier to advise your client to sign all the Returns as ‘nil’ if that is correct and send them back to HMRC…
I registered a trust because it has IHT exit charges once a year. No IT or CGT.
This was at the end of Feb. Nothing to file SA900 has been received yet. WIll update if anything comes through.
Does anyone know how I can get a UTR number for a Trust please? I have been going back and forth between the IHT Probate and Trusts Helpline number 0300 123 1072 and the personal taxation helpline - neither can help but they can’t tell me how to get the UTR number.