Readers' forum : At your discretion

We have recently started to act for a discretionary will trust created in 2012. The discretionary trust was the only beneficiary of the estate.

The previous agents were solicitors who were administering the estate and they have provided trust accounts that start only from the date the assets were appointed from the estate to the trust. They have only prepared a tax return for the period from that same date. Income had been distributed out of the estate to beneficiaries before the assets were appointed to the trust. I am concerned that trust returns should have been prepared from the date of death to report the income that was arising and distributed to the discretionary beneficiaries.

Query 18 871– Distributor.

Reply by Digby Bew

Generally the key determining factor as to the fiscal status of income receipts in these circumstances is the date when the estate’s administration...