HMRC has launched its online ‘Manage your trusts registration service’, which trustees should now use to notify HMRC of any changes to the information given about their trust at registration. This includes changes to settlors, trustees or beneficiaries.
HMRC has said it is giving careful consideration to representations from The Law Society, asking for deferral of changes to the trust registration service required by the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5MLD). The changes are expected to come into effect from 10 March 2020 subject to the outcome of the consultation which ran during January and February. These changes expand the number and types of trusts that require registration.
In its response to the consultation, The Law Society urges the government to interpret the directive purposively, taking account of whether a trust is ‘comparably similar to corporate and other legal entities’. The government should transpose the directive into UK law in a way that is ‘risk-based and proportionate’ and does not require ‘enormous numbers of low risk trusts’ to be registered.
The Law Society has also asked for deferral of the UK commencement date for the amended EU administrative cooperation directive (DAC6). DAC6 is due to come into force in the UK on 1 July, as implemented by the International Tax Enforcement (Disclosable Arrangements) Regulations, SI 2020/25. The directive introduces new disclosure and reporting rules for intermediaries involved in designing and promoting cross-border schemes bearing certain hallmarks of tax avoidance.
HMRC has launched its online ‘Manage your trusts registration service’, which trustees should now use to notify HMRC of any changes to the information given about their trust at registration. This includes changes to settlors, trustees or beneficiaries.
HMRC has said it is giving careful consideration to representations from The Law Society, asking for deferral of changes to the trust registration service required by the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5MLD). The changes are expected to come into effect from 10 March 2020 subject to the outcome of the consultation which ran during January and February. These changes expand the number and types of trusts that require registration.
In its response to the consultation, The Law Society urges the government to interpret the directive purposively, taking account of whether a trust is ‘comparably similar to corporate and other legal entities’. The government should transpose the directive into UK law in a way that is ‘risk-based and proportionate’ and does not require ‘enormous numbers of low risk trusts’ to be registered.
The Law Society has also asked for deferral of the UK commencement date for the amended EU administrative cooperation directive (DAC6). DAC6 is due to come into force in the UK on 1 July, as implemented by the International Tax Enforcement (Disclosable Arrangements) Regulations, SI 2020/25. The directive introduces new disclosure and reporting rules for intermediaries involved in designing and promoting cross-border schemes bearing certain hallmarks of tax avoidance.
