Managing & Administering Trusts in Scotland - Beyond the Basics

Introduction

A properly managed trust can be extremely useful to families, providing tax advantages, protection from financial claims and a way of holding assets for family members who cannot do so themselves.

A poorly managed trust stores up enormous problems and can lead to huge family fallouts, extremely costly litigation and for advisors, very unhappy clients.

The proper administration of a trust requires the ability to balance legal knowledge, accountancy skills and tax planning expertise.

This full day course will look at the foundations of good management which allow a trust to run smoothly throughout its life.

It will follow the key events in the creation, management and winding up of a trust.

Some experience of general trust administration will be assumed and, since much of trust administration and management is governed by tax law, the course will look closely at some of the taxation and compliance obligations which trustees are under.

What You Will Learn

This course will cover the following:

• Creation
• Why do we use trusts?
• How the trust deed affects the life of the trust
• Tax liabilities on creation of the trust
• Record keeping, reporting and compliance obligations
• Compliance
• Record keeping
• The Trust Registration Service
• Annual tax obligations
• Income Tax for Trustees
• The basics of annual income tax
• How income is taxed on beneficiaries
• How to mitigate the trustees’ tax liabilities
• Capital Gains Tax for Trustees
• The basics of Capital Gains Tax
• How the Trustees can mitigate CGT
• Inheritance Tax
• Ten year anniversary charges
• Exit charges
• Ending a trust
• The administrative steps involved in winding up a trust
• How to deal with lapsed and failed trusts