Guidance

Manage your trust's details

Use the online service to update details of your trust, declare no changes, authorise an agent, get proof of registration or close a trust on the trust register.

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published
3 April 2020
Last updated
20 December 2023 — See all updates

You must use the online service to:

  • update and amend the details that are held about the trust
  • declare the details held within the trust are up to date — for trusts with tax liabilities
  • close a trust
  • get proof of registration

Check the date you registered a trust

If you registered a trust before 4 May 2021

The first time you access the service you’ll need to:

  • tell us if the trust is, or is not, an express trust
  • declare the trust has, or does, pay tax

Once you’ve given us the information, you’ll need to sign out of the service before you can update any additional information about the trust.

When making changes to the trust details, you’ll need to confirm if:

  • a non-UK trust has a business relationship in the UK
  • the trust has purchased any UK land or property
  • the trust has a controlling interest in a company outside of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, or Switzerland

This information will be part of the usual registration process for all trusts registered after 4 May 2021.

If you registered a trust before 17 October 2022

When you return to the service you’ll need to say if the trust is a Schedule 3A trust. Schedule 3A trusts are also referred to as ‘excluded express trusts’.

Your trust is a Schedule 3A trust if it is any of the following:

  • a statutory trust by a court order or by law — for example, a trust created by a court when a couple cannot agree how to split assets during a divorce
  • used to hold money or assets of a UK registered pension scheme — like an occupational pension scheme
  • holding life insurance policies that only pay out on death, illness, or disability
  • a trust for a registered UK charity (or a charity not required to register with the Charity Commission under the Charities Act 2011)
  • set up to open a bank account for a child
  • set up on death that takes assets from the estate and is closed within two years of death (also called a ‘will trust’)
  • a trust with less than £100 and set up before 6 October 2020 (also called a ‘pilot trust’)
  • a co-ownership trust set up to hold shares of property or other assets jointly owned by 2 or more people as ‘tenants in common’
  • a trust relating to financial markets — including those created by default arrangements of a designated system or of the default rules of a recognised body
  • created to hold money for people other than the trustee — or those relating to professional services
  • holding client money, securities and other assets — this must be incidental to the carrying on of business by a relevant supervised person
  • a trust for capital markets and similar items
  • created to enable commercial transactions
  • a trust relating to registration of assets — for example, trusts created to hold the legal title of an asset for the person to whom the transfer or disposal is being made
  • a trust relating to legislative requirements — for example trusts set up to hold property, money from compensation for a personal injury or set up for a vulnerable beneficiary such as a disabled person
  • set up by government or other UK public authority

This will be part of the registration process for all trusts registered after 17 October 2022.

Updating your trust’s details

Information for the following categories need to be kept up to date and any changes must be completed within 90 days. The changes you can make include adding, amending or deleting details.

You’ll need to update all of the changes to the trust details before you submit them. You cannot save partly completed details and return to them later, so make sure you have all the information you need before you start.

Lead trustee

You can update the:

  • name
  • date of birth
  • National Insurance number and address (if they’re a UK citizen)
  • passport details and address (if they’re not a UK citizen)
  • telephone number
  • country of residence
  • country of nationality

If the lead trustee is an organisation, you can update the:

  • organisation name
  • organisation’s Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
  • address
  • telephone number
  • email address
  • country of residence

Other trustees

You can update the:

  • name
  • date of birth
  • country of residence
  • country of nationality
  • mental capacity at the time of registration
  • National Insurance number (if they’re a UK citizen)
  • address
  • passport details and address (if they’re not a UK citizen)

For all other organisations involved in the trust, you can update the:

  • organisation name
  • address
  • country of residence

Beneficiaries

You can update the:

  • individual
  • company
  • trust
  • charity
  • large
  • other
  • unidentified (class)

Settlor

You can update the:

  • name
  • address
  • date of birth
  • date of death
  • last known country of residence (not deceased settlors)
  • last known country of nationality (not deceased settlors)

If available, you’ll need their:

  • National Insurance number (if they’re a UK citizen)
  • passport details and address (if they’re not a UK citizen)

Protectors or other individuals, if appropriate

You can update the:

  • name
  • date of birth
  • National Insurance number and address (if they’re a UK citizen)
  • passport details and address (if they’re not a UK citizen)
  • country of residence
  • country of nationality

If the lead trustee is an organisation, you can update the:

  • organisation name
  • organisation’s Unique Taxpayer Reference
  • address
  • telephone number
  • email address

If you remove all trustees, settlors, named beneficiaries or all classes of beneficiaries, the trust will be treated as closed and you may not be able to access the service later. If someone is taking over these roles, you should wait until you have their details before removing all previous information so that you can still access the service.

Details you cannot update using the online service

You will need to contact us to:

  • change the trust start date
  • change the name of the trust
  • remove a settlor

Assets

You cannot change asset details using the Trust Registration Service. If you need to update asset details after making the declaration, you’ll need to use either:

  • Self Assessment online
  • Trust and Estate Tax Return (form SA900)

Lead trustee accessing a trust

If you’re the trustee and you registered the trust, you’ll need to answer security questions about the people associated with the trust before you can view or amend the details on the register. The answers you give must match the information entered at registration, or when the trust’s details were last updated.

To access the trust, you’ll need to use the same credentials that you used to register the trust.

Declare a trust is up to date

If the trust is liable to tax for any tax year, you must declare on the trust register that the details of the persons associated with the trust are accurate and up to date. You must do this whether you’ve made any changes or not.

If the trust is liable to Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax, you’ll also need to confirm on the trust’s Self Assessment return SA900 that you’ve either:

  • updated the details on the trust register
  • confirmed that there have been no changes to the trust

If the trust is not liable to tax, we do not need an annual declaration.

Closing a trust

You must use the online service to update the trust register and ‘close’ the trust if you have registered it to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.

You’ll need to confirm that the details on the trust register are up to date and tell us the date the trust ended. Do not write to HMRC to tell us that the trust has come to an end.

You should use the online service to update the trust register and ‘close’ the trust if you have registered it purely to get a Unique Taxpayer Reference to fill in a Self Assessment trust tax return.

You may need to submit a tax return for the year in which the trust ended.

Changing the trust from non-taxable to taxable

You must notify us if the trust was initially registered as a non-taxable trust and received a unique reference number and it has since become taxable and requires a Unique Taxpayer Reference. You’ll be asked for additional information.

You’ll need to confirm:

  • the type of trust
  • details about how it was set up

Once the change has been made, we will send the lead trustee a Unique Taxpayer Reference, usually within 15 working days. This will replace the unique reference number that was provided when the trust was registered as non-taxable.

You should check what you’ll need for each type of trust.

Deceased settlors

This applies to ‘will trusts’ only. You’ll need their:

  • National Insurance number if they’re a UK citizen
  • address
  • passport details and address if they’re not a UK citizen

Other individuals and organisations

You must also give one of the following:

  • National Insurance number if they’re a UK citizen
  • address
  • passport details and address if they’re not a UK citizen

Shares

You’ll need the:

  • share company name
  • number of shares
  • class and type of share
  • approximate value of the shares when you register the trust

Partnership

You’ll need the partnership description and start date.

Business

You’ll need the:

  • business name
  • business description
  • business address
  • approximate value of the business when you register the trust

Property and land

You’ll need the:

  • address, name or description of the property or land
  • estimated full value of the property or land at the time of registering the trust
  • estimated value of the portion of land or property held in trust if it does not own it all

Money

You’ll need the total amount of money in the trust.

Other assets (such as cars, jewellery or art)

You’ll need a description of the asset and the value of the asset when you register the trust.

Once the change has been made, we will send the lead trustee a Unique Taxpayer Reference, usually within 15 working days. This will replace the unique reference number that was provided when the trust was registered as non-taxable.

Get proof of registration

If you need proof of registration for a third party or relevant person, you can download a PDF ‘proof of registration’ document in the service by selecting ‘Get evidence of the trust’s registration’.

The proof of registration will show the trust’s registration and all the beneficial owners listed within it — including beneficiaries, trustees and settlors.

You will need to give a relevant person a copy of the proof of registration PDF before they enter into a business relationship with your trust.

Check who can be a relevant person and what happens if you do not provide them with a proof of registration document in the guidance to report a trust discrepancy to HMRC.

Deadlines

Non-taxable trusts

All changes must be reported to HMRC within 90 days of them occurring.

Taxable trusts

If the trust is taxable, you must declare it is up to date every year by 31 January.

You must tell HMRC within 90 days about changes to any beneficial owner’s:

  • name
  • date of birth
  • country of residence
  • country of nationality

If you fail to keep the register up to date, you may have to pay a penalty of £5,000.

Claiming a trust and authorising an agent to access the trust

Trustees

If you want an agent to view or make changes to a trust’s registration details, you’ll need to authorise the agent to manage the trust’s details for you.

You’ll need an Organisation Government Gateway user ID for each trust you want to access, or for whose details you want an agent to access. Use the green ‘start now’ button to sign in, or to create a user ID and password if you do not have one.

Once you’ve signed in, you’ll need to confirm the trust has been registered online and enter the trust’s Unique Taxpayer Reference or unique reference number.

If you did not register the trust, you’ll also need to answer some questions about the people associated with the trust to claim it and link it to your Government Gateway user ID.

The answers you give must match the information entered at registration or when the trust’s details were last updated.

Tell your agent when you have successfully claimed the trust. Your agent will then sign in to their online account and create a request authorisation link that they will email to you.

Select the link and sign in with the same Organisation Government Gateway user ID and password you used to claim the trust.

You’ll then be able to authorise your agent.

Agents

You must have authorisation from your client before you can view or change the details of the trust.

You’ll need to:

  • ask your client to set up an Organisation Government Gateway user ID and password for each trust you want access to, if they do not already have one
  • tell your client that they must ‘claim’ the trust by answering some questions about it — you should give your client the latest details of the trust so that their answers match them
  • sign in to your agent services account after your client has claimed the trust, then select the option for authorising your client
  • enter the trust’s Unique Taxpayer Reference to get a request authorisation link to share with your client
  • send your client an email with the request authorisation link and ask them to use it to authorise you before the date the link expires (you must tell your client which trust the authorisation link is for) — your client must sign in with the same user ID and password they used to claim the trust and accept the request to authorise you

Once you’re authorised, you do not need to answer any questions about the trust and the people associated with it to view or make changes to the details on the trust register.

Report that beneficial owners may be at a disproportionate risk of harm

From 1 September 2022, HMRC may share information held on the Trust Registration Service in limited circumstances with some third parties. Information will only be shared if either:

  • individuals can show that they’re looking into a specific instance of money laundering or terrorist financing in relation to a specific trust
  • a trust holds a controlling interest in offshore companies

This information includes their:

  • full name
  • month and year of birth
  • nationality
  • country of residence
  • beneficial interest in the trust

HMRC will not share information on specific individuals if doing so would lead to a disproportionate risk of:

  • fraud
  • kidnapping
  • blackmail
  • extortion
  • harassment
  • violence
  • intimidation

Tell HMRC in writing if you become aware that one or more of the trust’s beneficial owners may be exposed to a disproportionate risk of harm if their information is released.

Send an email, with ‘Beneficial owners at risk of harm’ in the subject line, to: trs.riskofharm@hmrc.gov.uk. Include the:

  • trust Unique Taxpayer Reference or unique reference number
  • trust name
  • lead trustee name
  • beneficial owners that are at risk of harm
  • specific risk of harm
  • full reason why the beneficial owner is at risk of the specified harm
  • full reason for believing that releasing their trust information would expose them to a disproportionate risk of harm
  • length of time for which you believe this risk will continue

This email is sent at the owner’s risk and HMRC will not be liable for any interception of that information. This mailbox will only accept information reporting a risk of harm.

Reporting a risk of harm is not a guarantee that the exemption will be applied. If HMRC get a trust data request in relation to that trust, we will review this information and decide if the risk of harm exemption applies. The exemption applies if releasing the beneficial owner’s trust information would expose them to a disproportionate risk of harm.

You should send further reports on an annual basis if you believe the risk of harm continues to apply.

Using the online service

Before you can view, update the details, or authorise an agent, you’ll need the Organisation Government Gateway user ID and password you used when you registered the trust. If you do not have one, you can create one the first time you use the service.

Start now

Service availability

HMRC services may be slow during busy times. Check if there are any problems with this service.

Updates to this page

Published 3 April 2020
Last updated 20 December 2023 + show all updates

  1. Made it clear which details you cannot change using the online service.

  2. A link to guidance about penalty charges for not registering or maintaining a trust has been added to the 'Taxable trusts' section.

  3. Guidance has been added for if you registered a trust before 17 October 2022.

  4. Information on how to download a PDF document to share with third parties and relevant persons has been added to the 'Get proof of registration' section.

  5. We have updated the guidance under 'Deadlines' on deliberately failing to keep the resister up to date.

  6. Information on how to report that beneficial owners may be at a disproportionate risk of harm has been added.

  7. The deadline for registrations for non-taxable trusts is 1 September 2022. Trusts that need to register from 1 September 2022 must do so within 90 days.

  8. Added translation

  9. We've updated the page with further guidance for both taxable and non-taxable trusts.

  10. Guidance about authorising an agent to access the trust has been updated.

  11. Added translation

  12. Guidance about authorising an agent to access the trust has been updated.

  13. The section about registration of a trust before 4 May 2021 has been amended.

  14. Information about trusts registered before 4 May 2021 has been updated.

  15. Sections about registrations made before May 2021 and proof of registration have been added and updating trust details has been updated.

  16. Information about how to update trust details on the trust register has been amended.

  17. A link for the form SA900 to file a Trust and Estate Tax Return has been added.

  18. A new section about 'authorising an agent' has been added.

  19. The sections for updating trust details and declarations have been updated and a new section about deadlines has been added.

  20. Information added on closing a trust.

  21. Information about the type of changes that can be made and when to declare them, using the online service, have been added.

  22. First published.

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