Trust management & tax compliance

Expert trust management can help ensure wealth is preserved for the next generation.

It is human nature to want to protect and pass on your wealth. Trusts are a useful structure to do this, but the successful use of trusts requires effective management. Correctly managing a trust can be complex and time consuming, but by working with our experts, you can rest assured that everything will be taken care of.

Our tax compliance and trust management specialists work across Kent, the South East and nationally and have extensive experience of administering a wide range of family trusts, foundations, charitable trusts and family investment companies, covering many different types of asset class.

We understand how important it is for you to work with trusted advisers who really understand your unique situation and aims. Our team build strong relationships with clients, and have worked with many clients for generations, taking a proactive approach that is tailored to individual needs. We work closely with our clients’ wealth advisers to ensure a joined-up service that works for you.

We deal with the management of trusts and the underlying entities, including:

• Discretionary trusts
• Life interest trusts
• Bare trusts
• Charitable trusts
• Personal injury trusts
• Will trusts.

We also advise on the tax implications of setting up a trust, working with our Wills, Estate & Tax Planning team.

Our trust management services include:

• Preparing monthly and quarterly management accounts including cash flow reports and investment performance reports
• Dealing with the day to day administration such as arranging payment of invoices, school fees, liaising with investment professionals in respect of the purchase and sale of investments and ensuring sufficient cash flow to meet the running expenses of trusts and their underlying entities
• Advising on a trustee’s duties and powers
• Assisting with the choice of an investment adviser
• Preparing trust accounts and financial statements
• Managing the trust’s tax affairs and preparing annual tax returns
• Registration on HMRC’s Trust Registration Service, and ongoing maintenance of the register
• Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) reporting, including FATCA reporting
• Calculating and paying tax liabilities
• Advising on tax savings for trustees and tax implications for beneficiaries
• Arranging the collection of income, asset sales and purchases, cash movements and other transactions
• Making distributions of income and capital and preparing relevant deeds and trustee resolutions
• Preparing Inheritance Tax accounts for periodic and exit charges
• Advising on the ownership and occupation of residential property
• Retiring and appointing trustees
• Winding up trusts.

Managing trusts and navigating an increasingly complex tax system can be time consuming and daunting.

Generations of families and businesses have relied on our expert team of specialists to relieve them of the burden of trust management and tax compliance.

Our Trust & Tax Management practice can help you to protect your assets and pass on your wealth to the next generation tax efficiently, and in the way that best suits your circumstances.

The tax compliance and trust management team looks after the accounting, taxation and administration aspects of running different kinds of trusts, charities and other structures, including family investment companies.

We provide a personal tax advisory and compliance service across Kent, the South East and nationally, assisting trustees, beneficiaries and other individuals with their income, property and capital gains tax needs.

Our team also works to manage inheritance tax reporting for periodic charges, exits and other events, and to support executors in the preparation of estate accounts and tax returns for estates.

Key clients include:

• People creating trusts (settlors), charities and family investment companies
• Trustees and executors
• Family offices
• Beneficiaries and other individuals with private wealth
• Business owners
• Property owners and landlords (including non-resident landlords)
• Non-UK resident and non-UK domiciled individuals with reporting requirements in the UK.

As part of a full service law firm, we can call on expertise from our Wills, Estate & Tax Planning, Probate, Will, Trust & Estate Disputes and Family teams as needed.