Readers’ forum: Request to withdraw notices to file

One of my clients set up a bare trust for his granddaughter in 2012. It is not a simple nominee arrangement – there is a trust deed setting out powers of the trustees – but it appears that the trustees have no discretion and the assets belong absolutely to the girl.

She will be entitled to wind up the trust and call for the assets when she is 18 in four years’ time. In the meantime the funds are in open-ended investment companies. When the gift was made there was no requirement to register trusts but following a suggestion from the investment company the trustee has this year told HMRC’s trust registration service about the arrangement. Initially it sent him a unique reference number for a non-taxable trust but now he has received a unique taxpayer reference and notices to file self-assessment returns...