Further delays to the trust registration service upgrade

There will be further information technology delays to the upgrading of the trust registration service HMRC has announced. This will result in the date by which existing trusts must register being pushed beyond the March 2022 deadline.

To comply with the EU Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Regulations that came into force in January 2020 the list of trusts that need to register with the online trust registration service was greatly expanded and included many non-tax paying trusts. Until the service is ready trusts can register but material changes such as a change of trustee or of correspondence address cannot be made online.

HMRC had previously said that existing unregistered trusts would need to be registered on the service by 10 March 2022. The upgraded IT system is now not expected to open until an unspecified date in summer 2021. To compensate HMRC said...