Changes to Trust Reporting Requirements
This year there have been changes made to the requirements for Trust Tax Returns (IR6) by IRD. They now require additional disclosures to be included in the returns. This applies to both Trusts, and Estates that have lasted beyond the initial administrative period.
The changes require us to disclose information about the Settlor(s) of the Trust, including IRD numbers, dates of birth, and any settlements made during the year. We will also be required to provide the IRD number, date of birth, and current residential address of beneficiaries.
With each IR6, an accompanying IR10 is filed. This is a tax return which acts similarly to a set of Financial Statements: it provides more in-depth information for IRD about your financial position, as a supplement to the IR6. These already contained details of the Trust’s profit, losses, assets, and liabilities, but this information must now be re-entered again in a different format.
We must advise the balance and movement in each beneficiary’s advance account for the year, and the value of any ‘benefit’ the beneficiaries may have gained that aren’t cash. For example, if your Trust owns a house and a beneficiary has been getting free use of the house.
Gathering and returning this information may mean that we need to ask parties related to a Trust for more information than in prior years, and you may be asked to provide information that you haven’t had to disclose previously.
If you’re a client and you have any questions or concerns about how this may affect you, or you would like advice on entity structuring, or help evaluating the ongoing use of your Trust, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
If you’re not yet a client, reach out for a no-obligations chat about the services we can offer you and your Trust or Estate.