In December 2020 the legislation enacting the new 39% tax rate was passed. Within the same bill, somewhat overshadowed by the rate change, was the introduction of a new “annual return” requirement for trusts.

Not to be confused with the new Trustee Act that came into effect at the end of last month which requires certain disclosures to be made to beneficiaries, the annual return requirement included in the December 2020 bill imposes the disclosure of various trust information to Inland Revenue on an annual basis.

As enacted, the annual return for trusts will comprise:

  • an income statement and balance sheet;
  • details of any settlements made on the trust during the year;
  • the name, date of birth, country of tax residence and IRD number of any person who makes a settlement on the trust in the year, whose details have not previously been provided;
  • details on every distribution made by the trust during the year, including capital distributions, as well as details on the recipient beneficiaries; and
  • details of any person who has the power to appoint and remove trustees and beneficiaries of a trust.

The requirement will not apply to non-active, charitable or Maori authority trusts and foreign trusts that are already filing disclosures with Inland Revenue.

Although the legislation applies for the 2022 income year onward, there is a provision which allows
Inland Revenue to request the same annual return information for any period between the 2015 and 2021 income years.

Inland Revenue is likely to use the information to monitor the extent to which income is being taxed to trusts at 33%, that would have been taxed at 39% if derived by individuals. That information could then be used as a basis for the Government to either increase the trust tax rate or increase the extent that beneficiary distributions are taxed to individuals.

The information could also be used by Inland Revenue to specifically check other areas of compliance. For example:

  • Imputation streaming rules require dividends received by a trust that are then distributed to a trust’s beneficiaries to be spread proportionately across those beneficiaries, otherwise imputation credits may be forfeited.
  • Taxable income can be triggered if a trust receives the benefit of a debt forgiveness and a subsequent distribution is made to a corporate beneficiary.
  • Application of the land taxing rules can depend on whether parties are associated. The level of disclosure will enable Inland Revenue to readily determine who a trust is associated to.

As time passes and the amount of information held by Inland Revenue increases, they could proactively identify errors in a trust’s tax position. Especially if a trust has moved from one accountant to another and Inland Revenue has a clearer picture of past transactions than the new accountant