Trust tax reform

In the autumn Budget in November 2017 the chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond announced the government’s commitment to consult on ‘how to make the taxation of trusts simpler fairer and more transparent’. A couple of months later in January 2018 he asked the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to carry out a review of the administrative and broader technical aspects of inheritance tax.

In response in November 2018 HMRC launched a consultation The taxation of trusts: a review (see tinyurl.com/hmrctrcondoc2018). The OTS followed on 23 November 2018 and 5 July 2019 with two reports on inheritance tax which highlighted particular issues affecting trusts (tinyurl.com/ydasr9oc and tinyurl.com/otsihtjul19). Since then discussions on reforms to the taxation of trusts have continued. The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on inheritance and intergenerational fairness established in February 2019 produced a report Reform of inheritance tax in January...