The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has introduced new disclosure requirements for domestic trusts that will almost certainly affect all family trusts.

The new disclosure requirements apply to all trusts with assessable income over $200. 

There is a silver lining though, if your trust is considered to be ‘passive’ – a passive trust is one that earns an income of $200 or less in a financial year - it does not have to meet the new disclosure requirements provided, a Non-Active Declaration is made for the Trust. 

If your trust is in this category, you will need to make sure your accountant fills in a non-active declaration for the trust and files it with the IRD. If you haven’t already had a conversation with your accountant about this, now is the time. 

Trusts can be used to protect your assets from being at risk because of debts, business liabilities, relationship breakdowns, and to help arrange the distribution of assets to younger family members in the future – but these days, administering a trust can be a complicated business. 

If you’d like to know more about trusts or how these new disclosure rules affect your trust, get in touch with our Trusts team. 

Remember, with the increased transparency brought about by the Trusts Act 2019, beneficiaries are now entitled to basic trust information like the trust deed, and it is presumed that trustees will make information available to all the beneficiaries. 

Trustees are more accountable for their actions than ever before.  

We’ve set up a free Trustee Management Self-assessment Tool to help you evaluate how well you’re doing when it comes to administering your trust, and we offer a range of trust management services to help make the running of your trust easier.