Blind trust

One of our clients has become a cabinet minister. As a result the Cabinet Office has advised that a blind trust has become necessary for his investments. All that side of things – the trusteeship etc. – we can deal with but the question arises about a tax return for the trust notifying HMRC etc.

Do Taxation readers have any general guidance please?

We can’t help feeling that to make it completely ‘blind’ we should be completing a trust tax return to give effect (somehow) to our client’s marginal tax rates on the income and gains and not actually putting anything at all on his personal self-assessment tax return even though it is a bare trust.

Any clarification or advice would be very welcome.

Query 17 666 – J

Reply from KS

The nature of a trust (which determines how it is...