What can the Trustees of a Non-Taxpaying Trust do when they have lost the Unique Reference Number for the Trust?

Did you realise that if a non-taxpaying trust which has been registered with HMRC has lost its Unique Reference Number (URN), it has to be re-registered with HM Revenue & Customs.

If a non-taxpaying trust has been registered with the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Trust Registration Service (TRS) and the trustees do not have a note of the Unique Reference Number (URN), HMRC are unable to trace the trust and issue a duplicate URN, unlike with a taxpaying trust where the UTR can be reissued. The only solution is to re-register the trust.

Consider a client who has already paid a substantial fee to a Trust Corporation to register the trust and the Trust Corporation has now gone into administration. Not only does the client have to appoint a new lead trustee, as the Trust Corporation no longer exists, but they are also required to update the HMRC trust register with these changes.

The problem is that the Trust Corporation, who initially registered the trust, would have received a note of the URN from HMRC given that they would appointed themselves as the lead trustee. They have now gone into administration and there is no trace of the URN.

In these circumstances the only way the trustees can make any changes to the trust register is to re-register the trust with HMRC.

If you would like help with registering a trust with HM Revenue & Customs, please get in touch.