Changes in HMRC Trusts and Estates Practice

29/03/2010

We are making changes that we believe will improve the services and support we provide to agents dealing with Trusts and Estates. We hope that by working together, the changes do not cause problems on either side.  Our aim is that, whilst working with the resources available to us, we can find ways to improve your access to our support and our interaction with agents.   We also want to provide reassurance about an amendment we have made to the 2009 -2010 Trusts & Estates SA 900 return that is linked to one of these changes

New services for Trusts

• Agent Dedicated Line

This summer we will be introducing a new Agent Dedicated Line specifically for Trusts enquiries. The new service will be staffed to a high standard.  It will assist us in identifying issues where we need to provide better clarification and help to ensure our guidance meets your needs. We will collect information about the nature and frequency of the enquiries we receive and share the most frequently asked questions and answers with the wider agent community.

We also want to provide updates on issues that we believe will be of concern to agents and raise awareness of new developments on the Trusts and Estates front. As we learn more about how these elements are working, we will discuss with agent representatives how they might be developed and taken forward to benefit both the agent community and HMRC.

• A new Toolkit for managing risks in the Trust & Estate Return

This is part of a wider HMRC focus on ensuring correct returns are submitted rather than on compliance checks after an error has been made. The toolkit sets out the common errors we regularly see in Trust and Estate returns, and suggests steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of these errors being made. The new toolkit will incorporate the Capital Gains for Trusts toolkit we piloted with a small number of agents and take on board the lessons we learned from that trial. Use of this toolkit is entirely voluntary and will be available to all from mid-May 2010.

We recognise that many of you already fully understand the issues the toolkit raises; however feedback from the pilot has shown that some practitioners welcome the assurance provided by the toolkit that their processes work, and that they can readily demonstrate reasonable care. Others have found one or two new points they were unaware of, and junior or inexperienced staff within practices have found the toolkit a helpful source of support. It should also be borne in mind that the toolkit will develop and change as we build upon our experience and if you identify issues that you think need addressing such feedback can help determine the future shape and usefulness of the toolkit.

Change to the 2009 -10 Return - Toolkit tickbox

The 2009-10 Trust & Estate Return includes a simple voluntary tickbox to indicate whether the toolkit has been used.  We are aware this may be viewed with some concern by some agents and we want to reassure you that the tickbox will be used only to gather some basic data to show how widespread its use has been. Without this data it will be very difficult for us to assess the value of the toolkit, the extent it has been used, and how best to improve the support we offer.  So if you do use the toolkit it will help us if you tick the box.

The tickbox will not be used for risk assessment purposes in any way, nor will an empty box generate an enquiry. The notes to the return make it clear that the signatory bears no responsibility for the completion or non completion of this box so it will not and cannot be used as part of any challenge about the accuracy of a return.

We take a flexible view on what “using” a toolkit means. There are many ways to use it and much will depend on the practices you currently use. For example:

• Some may want to work through the return checking off each box on the checklist.
• Others will read the toolkit and be content that the risks it contains are understood and will be addressed appropriately should they arise.
• It may mean checking the consistency of the firm’s returns preparations systems with the toolkit (using either dedicated software or other measures).
• The checklist is capable of being used in a free-standing way, but it is possible to use the toolkit without using the checklist.
• Tax calculations are often provided by fund managers or other intermediaries – using the toolkit does not require you to recheck their workings.

We and representative bodies agree that a tickbox would be inappropriate on the wider SA return, it will only appear on the 2009-10 SA900 return. It will not reappear in later years unless there is agreement with professional bodies that a further data collection exercise would be useful.