A total of 211,381 trust registrations have been received since the Trustee Registration Service (TRS) began in June 2017, new figures have shown.

A Freedom of Information request to HMRC by Canada Life has revealed that this is an increase of almost 60,000 registrations in just five months. Over 36,000 registrations were received in May and June alone, almost double the total number received in 2021.

The deadline for the majority of express trusts to be registered on the service is 1 September, with the onus on trustees to register through HMRC's online portal by that date.

Ahead of the deadline, Canada Life has released a guide to help advisers and trustees to register their trusts.

“It’s great to see that the message to register is starting to get through to trustees, however the clock is ticking and we still have a long way to go to ensure all the trusts that are required to register do so by the deadline,” commented Canada Life tax and estate planning specialist, Stacey Love.

“Using a trust has been such a fundamental part of the tax and estate planning landscape for so long it's entirely possible the existence of a trust may have faded into the background. As a result, many ‘ordinary’ people who are trustees may not realise that TRS registration still applies, unless they pay close attention to the financial press or receive regulatory updates from HMRC.

“With no central HMRC communication, it’s imperative that providers and advisers work together to flag up these new rules with all of their trustee clients affected by the regulations. With around one million trusts needing to be registered, there is still a significant amount of work to complete and the onus is on advisers and providers to highlight the process to trustees.”

Share Story: