In matters where I am advising clients that their Trusts need to be registered on the TRS, and they are the Trustees, I am advising them to complete the registration themselves or with accountant’s help, as I am not registered as an agent for this purpose.
I do, of course, register Trusts where I am one of the Trustees.
Do the forum members have themselves registered as Agents to act for clients in this TRS registration, and if so, what charges are levied please? I deal mainly with lower end Trusts, below IHT level, but those that are required to be registered, such as Life Tenancy on property, etc.
I am unsure whether to see about being an agent in this event, and what I should charge, as well as dealing with the work and liability involved, although I do note that clients need help in working out the TRS!
Your responses would be appreciated.
Having registered 2 trusts myself and deciding that I could nether be bothered with TRS when they became taxable I engaged an agent to process the re-registration and the consequent tax returns (albeit fully drafted by me for their approval!). The appointment as agent was mostly done at their end but had to involve me giving online authorisation. The 64-8 of course is still sent to the Stasi by Steam Packet. The charge for both tasks was £525 plus VAT. I was entirely happy with that, although I deeply resent in principle the compliance cost shifting from the Exchequer to the Punter which this represents, and TRS itself.
The new AML Condoc is at
It proposes a new de minimis registration threshold of £5000 for trusts not owning land. So a bare trust of £5001 where A and B hold for A B and C will be registrable but one of £50 million where A and B hold for A and B will be Excluded.
You could not make it up, so fortunately HMG and HMRC will do it for you. Mind how you go!
A pity there is no de minimis threshold for land (unless the assumption is that the £5K assets test will cover virtually all?) Good to see Scottish survivorship destinations (roughly equivalent to English joint tenancy) being excluded.