TSEM8220 - Trust management expenses: accumulation/discretionary trusts: legislation: ITA/S484: Trustees’ expenses to be set against trustees’ trust rate income

ITA/S484 allows trustees’ expenses to be set against trustees’ trust rate income if the trustees of a settlement incur allowable expenses in a tax year (the current tax year).

The expenses are allowable expenses if they are:

• expenses of the trustees
• properly chargeable to income, ignoring the express terms of the settlement

and have not been taken into account for the purposes of calculating the trustees’ liability to income tax for any tax year.

S484 provides that an expense is allowable for tax purposes if it is properly chargeable to income in general trust law, and what the trust deed says is to be ignored.

if an expense is properly chargeable to capital in general trust law, but charged to income under the trust deed, the expense is not allowed;

if an expense is properly chargeable to income in general trust law, but charged to capital under the trust deed, the expense is allowed.

The legislation for accumulation/discretionary trusts specifies that one must disregard the trust deed when establishing whether the expense is an allowable trust management expense for tax purposes. In practical terms it means that all accumulation/discretionary trusts are treated the same.