TRSM80020 - Penalties: contents: Failure to register on time

Details of the trusts that are required to register on TRS are set out at TRSM21010. In recognition of the fact that the registration requirement is a new and unfamiliar obligation for many trustees, no automatic penalties will be issued by HMRC if you register your trust late: however, if HMRC becomes aware that you have failed to register your trust when you are required to then you may be charged a penalty.

In practice this means that should HMRC become aware of a trust which has not been registered by the relevant deadline – either because that trust has been registered late or because HMRC have identified that trust’s existence by other means – HMRC may issue a warning letter to the trustee or agent. If the trust is not yet registered, the trustee or agent should register it at that point. If the trustee or agent then fails to register the trust within the time period stated within the warning letter or fails to explain why their trust is not liable to registration, a penalty may be issued to the lead trustee.

Penalties for non-compliance will be applied on a case-by-case basis. Examples of the circumstances in which such a penalty might apply include continued failure to register a trust following repeated warnings or providing details on a given trust that are inaccurate, accompanied by continued failure to amend those details.

Where a trustee has failed to register a registrable trust a £5,000 penalty may be charged.