Murray Beith Murray LLP is a leading Scottish private client law firm.
For 175 years we have specialised in meeting the legal, financial and administrative needs of individuals and families, family trusts, charities and private companies.
Murray Beith Murray LLP is a leading Scottish private client law firm.
For 175 years we have specialised in meeting the legal, financial and administrative needs of individuals and families, family trusts, charities and private companies.
After years of frustration, trustees of small, non-taxpaying trusts will soon benefit from a long-overdue exemption from the UK’s Trust Registration Service (TRS). But there is a catch: the change will not apply retrospectively.
Under current rules, most UK express trusts, even those with no tax liability, must register with the TRS. That has included countless small, low-value arrangements never intended to trigger full compliance requirements.
HMRC has confirmed that small non-taxpaying trusts will, in future, be exempt from TRS registration provided they meet all of the following criteria:
The exemption is expected to be introduced via secondary legislation later this year or in early 2026.
Trusts that have already been registered under the current rules must remain registered, even if they would qualify for the new exemption going forward. There is no plan (as yet) to allow such trusts to be removed from the register. This is a forward-looking change only; a helpful reduction in the compliance burden for future trusts, but not a rollback for existing ones.
This move will not affect the majority of standard trusts, which clearly continue to require registration. But it will prevent small family or administrative trusts, such as some bare trust and pilot trust structures, from being unnecessarily pulled into a regime designed to improve transparency and tackle abuse.
Adam Swayne is a solicitor within our Asset Protection Group and is a dual qualified solicitor (Scotland and England/Wales). He specialises in Estate planning and Wills. If this article has raised any questions or you would like to discuss any issues covered here, then please complete our contact form, or call us on 0131 225 1200 to speak to one of our specialist estate planning lawyers.
Murray Beith Murray was established in 1849 as advisors for generations of clients, committed to our values of integrity, expertise and trust. This aim and these values continue to this day, as does our commitment to be here when you need us.
