Taxman HM Revenue & Customs has pushed backed the date for when its compulsory Trust Registrations Service goes live, from Spring 2021 to Autumn of this year, allowing for an approximately 12-month window to register from the date the service is available.

Gerry Brown, trust and estate Planning specialist at Isle of Man-based QB Partners, said: "In my opinion the requirement to register trusts will be one of the biggest tasks facing advisers over the next couple of years. A lot of work for little or no reward."

He argued that there are two ways to look at the extra time revealed in the HMRC issued Agent Update (83) which was announced on 14 April.

"It will give advisers more time to gather the information required to register, or the pain of the process will be stretched out until the end of 2022.

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"I should add that most countries are working towards a trust register - though perhaps at different paces."

In the HMRC issued Agent Update (83) it said The Trust Registration Service (TRS) was being modified to enable the registration of non-tax paying trusts, enabling more detail on the timescales and registration deadlines:

• expects the TRS service to be open for non-taxpaying trust registrations by Autumn 2021, rather than Spring 2021
• appreciates the inconvenience caused by this delay to our IT systems, given the original legislative deadline of March 2022
• will be extending the deadline, to provide trustees and agents approximately 12 months in which to register, from the date that the service is available
HMRC added that "further updates and clarification on the final deadline will be confirmed in due course".

"We're currently in the development phase of extending TRS to include functionality to register non-tax paying trusts. To help HMRC in developing this aspect of the service, we're looking to speak to people who have set up a trust or are a trustee for a trust that is non-taxable. We would also like to hear from you if you're an agent who will be registering a trust that is non-taxable, on behalf of a client."