TRSM32050 - Registration: contents: information required: contents: beneficiary details

The beneficiaries of a trust are the persons for whose benefit the property is held.

Depending on the trust, there may be one beneficiary, or several. Sometimes, the beneficiaries are defined as a class of persons (for example, ‘children of X’), rather than being named individually.

Beneficiaries can be individuals or other legal persons (such as companies).

For all trusts registering on the Trust Registration Service (TRS), the trustees must provide information relating to the beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries of the trust. Potential beneficiaries may include individuals referred to as such in documents from the settlor relating to the trust such as a letter of wishes.

The information required varies depending on whether the beneficiary is:

  • An individual;
  • A class of beneficiaries;
  • A charity or trust;
  • A company or employment related trust; or
  • Other.

Beneficiaries who are individuals:

  • Full name
  • Date of birth
  • Country of nationality
    • This is the country of which the individual is a national. In most cases, this is where the individual was born and where their passport is issued.
    • Some individuals may have dual or multiple nationalities. If so, selecting any applicable country of nationality is acceptable. However, if one of those countries of nationality is the UK, trustees must select the UK and not any other country.
  • Country of residence
    • This is usually the country where the individual lives and works most of the time during the tax year. If there is any doubt, trustees can check whether an individual is UK resident through the Statutory Residence Test (SRT).
    • For more complicated cases where the residency of the individual changes between tax years, HMRC will expect TRS to be updated with that change once the position for that tax year has been established as part of that individuals ongoing tax obligations.
    • Some individuals may have more than one country of residence, as defined by the laws of each of those countries. If so, selecting any applicable country of residence is acceptable. However, if one of the countries of residence is the UK, trustees must select UK and not any other country.
  • Mental capacity
    • An individual does not have mental capacity if they cannot understand, retain, use or weigh information to make decisions about their role in the trust because of an impairment or disturbance in the functioning of their mind, such as they have a mental illness, learning disability, dementia, acquired brain injury, or they cannot communicate. See TRSM32100 for further information on mental capacity.

Class of beneficiaries:

  • Description of the class of beneficiaries
    • Trusts are often set up for the benefit of a class of unnamed beneficiaries. To be a valid trust, this class must be distinguishable. For example, a trust could be set up for the benefit of “all descendants of Mr Silva”.
    • Beneficiaries should only be recorded as part of a class of beneficiaries if they cannot all reasonably be identified individually by the trustees. If all the members of the class can be identified individually by the trustees, they should instead be recorded as individual beneficiaries.
    • In the example above, if the trust had been settled by Mr Silva some generations ago it may not be reasonable for the trustees to now identify each descendent. The beneficiaries could therefore be recorded as a class of beneficiaries.
    • However, if the beneficiaries were instead a distinct group such as “the grandchildren of Mr Silva” , it is reasonable to expect the trustees to be aware of the identity of each individual. Therefore they should be recorded as individual beneficiaries rather than as part of a class of beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries that are charities or trusts:

  • Name of charity or trust
  • Country of residence
    • For charities, this is usually where the charity is registered, or where it’s principal or main office is located.
    • For trusts, see TRSM21020 for the rules that determine residency.
  • Name of the company or business
  • Country of residence
    • This is where the company or business is registered or incorporated. A company has UK residency if it registered with Companies House. In other cases, select the country where the principal or main office is located
  • Description of beneficiaries
    • If the beneficiaries are a specific class of employees of the business.
    • For example, ‘All current employees of X Ltd and their families’. Trustees will also need to know approximately how many individuals are in this class of beneficiaries.
    • If the beneficiaries are specified by name or are otherwise individually identifiable (for example directors), do not include them here. Instead, they should be recorded as individual beneficiaries.

Other beneficiaries:

  • Description of the beneficiary
    • This includes beneficiaries that do not fit into the other categories.
    • This category should not include named or specific individuals. Instead, those individuals should be recorded as individual beneficiaries.
  • Country of residence
    • This is usually the country where the individual lives and works most of the time during the tax year. If there is any doubt, trustees can check whether an individual is UK resident through the Statutory Residence Test (SRT).
    • Some individuals may have more than one country of residence, as defined by the laws of each of those countries. If so, selecting any applicable country of residence is acceptable. However, if one of the countries of residence is the UK, trustees must select UK and not any other country.