Passing assets to beneficiaries using a trust

You may decide to use a trust to pass assets to beneficiaries, particularly those who aren’t immediately able to look after their own affairs. If you do use a trust to give something away, this removes it from your estate provided you don’t use it or get any benefit from it. But bear in mind that gifts into trust may be liable to Inheritance Tax (IHT).

Trusts offer a means of holding and managing money or property for people who may not be ready or able to manage it for themselves. Used in conjunction with a will, they can also help ensure that your assets are passed on in accordance with your wishes after you die.

Here we take a look at the main types of UK family trust.

When writing a will, there are several kinds of trust that can be used to help minimise an Inheritance Tax liability. On 22 March 2006 the government changed some of the rules regarding trusts and introduced some transitional rules for trusts set up before this date.

A trust might be created in various circumstances, for example:

when someone is too young to handle their affairs

when someone can’t handle their affairs because they’re incapacitated

to pass on money or property while you’re still alive

under the terms of a will

when someone dies without leaving a will (England and
Wales only)

What is a trust?
A trust is an obligation binding a person called a trustee to deal with property in a particular way for the benefit of one or more ‘beneficiaries’.

Settlor
The settlor creates the trust and puts property into it at the start, often adding more later. The settlor says in the trust deed how the trust’s property and income should be used.

Trustee
Trustees are the ‘legal owners’ of the trust property and must deal with it in the way set out in the trust deed. They also administer the trust. There can be one or more trustees.

Beneficiary
This is anyone who benefits from the property held in the trust. The trust deed may name the beneficiaries individually or define a class of beneficiary, such as the settlor’s family.

Trust property
This is the property (or ‘capital’) that is put into the trust by the settlor. It can be anything, including:

land or buildings
investments
money
antiques or other valuable property

The main types of private UK trust

Bare trust
In a bare trust the property is held in the trustee’s name but the beneficiary can take actual possession of both the income and trust property whenever they want. The beneficiaries are named and cannot be changed.

You can gift assets to a child via a bare trust while you are alive, which will be treated as a Potentially Exempt Transfer (PET) until the child reaches age 18, (the age of majority in England and Wales), when the child can legally demand his or her share of the trust fund from the trustees.

All income arising within a bare trust in excess of £100 per annum will be treated as belonging to the parents (assuming that the gift was made by the parents). But providing the settlor survives seven years from the date of placing the assets in the trust, the assets can pass Inheritance Tax free to a child at age 18.

Life interest or interest in possession trust
In an interest in possession trust the beneficiary has a legal right to all the trust’s income (after tax and expenses), but not to the property of the trust.

These trusts are typically used to leave income arising from a trust to a second surviving spouse for the rest of their life. On their death, the trust property reverts to other beneficiaries, (known as the remaindermen), who are often the children from the first marriage.

You can, for example, set up an interest in possession trust in your will. You might then leave the income from the trust property to your spouse for life and the trust property itself to your children when your spouse dies.
With a life interest trust, the trustees often have a ‘power of appointment’, which means they can appoint capital to the beneficiaries (who can be from within a widely defined class, such as the settlor’s extended family) when they see fit.

Where an interest in possession trust was in existence before 22 March 2006, the underlying capital is treated as belonging to the beneficiary or beneficiaries for Inheritance Tax purposes, for example, it has to be included as part of their estate.

Transfers into interest in possession trusts after 22 March 2006 are taxable as follows:

20 per cent tax payable based on the amount gifted into the trust at the outset, which is in excess of the prevailing nil rate band

Ten years after the trust was created, and on each subsequent ten-year anniversary, a periodic charge, currently 6 per cent, is applied to the portion of the trust assets that is in excess of the prevailing nil rate band.
The value of the available ‘nil rate band’ on each ten-year anniversary may be reduced, for instance, by the initial amount of any new gifts put into the trust within seven years of its creation.

There is also an exit charge on any distribution of trust assets between each ten-year anniversary.

Discretionary trust
The trustees of a discretionary trust decide how much income or capital, if any, to pay to each of the beneficiaries but none has an automatic right to either. The trust can have a widely defined class of beneficiaries, typically the settlor’s extended family.

Discretionary trusts are a useful way to pass on property while the settlor is still alive and allows the settlor to keep some control over it through the terms of the trust deed.

Discretionary trusts are often used to gift assets to grandchildren, as the flexible nature of these trusts allows the settlor to wait and see how they turn out before making outright gifts.

Discretionary trusts also allow for changes in circumstances, such as divorce, re-marriage and the arrival of children and stepchildren after the establishment of the trust.

When any discretionary trust is wound up, an exit charge is payable of up to 6 per cent of the value of the remaining assets in the trust, subject to the reliefs for business and agricultural property.

Accumulation and maintenance trust
An accumulation and maintenance trust is used to provide money to look after children during the age of minority. Any income that isn’t spent is added to the trust property, all of which later passes to the children.

In England and Wales the beneficiaries become entitled to the trust property when they reach the age of 18. At that point the trust turns into an ‘interest in possession’ trust. The position is different in Scotland, as, once a beneficiary reaches the age of 16, they could require the trustees to hand over the trust property.

Accumulation and maintenance trusts that were already established before 22 March 2006, and where the child is not entitled to access the trust property until an age up to 25, could be liable to an Inheritance Tax charge of up to 4.2 per cent of the value of the trust assets.

It has not been possible to create accumulation and maintenance trusts trust since 22 March 2006 for Inheritance Tax purposes. Instead, they are taxed for Inheritance Tax as discretionary trusts.

Mixed trust
A mixed trust may come about when one beneficiary of an accumulation and maintenance trust reaches 18 and others are still minors. Part of the trust then becomes an interest in possession trust.

Trusts for vulnerable persons 
These are special trusts, often discretionary trusts, arranged for a beneficiary who is mentally or physically disabled.  They do not suffer from the Inheritance Tax rules applicable to standard discretionary trusts and can be used without affecting entitlement to state benefits; however, strict rules apply.

Tax on income from UK trusts
Trusts are taxed as entities in their own right. The beneficiaries pay tax separately on income they receive from the trust at their usual tax rates, after allowances.

Taxation of property settled on trusts
How a particular type of trust is charged to tax will depend upon the nature of that trust and how it falls within the taxing legislation. For example, a charge to Inheritance Tax may arise when putting property into some trusts, and on other chargeable occasions – for instance, when further property is added to the trust, on distributions of capital from the trust or on the ten-yearly anniversary of the trust.