Essay On Discretionary Trust

1217 Words3 Pages

Discretionary trust is the most flexible form of trust as the trustee can use and distribute the income and capital of the trust entirely at their discretion according to the settlor’s instruction. The trustee can accumulate the whole of the income within the trust and pay income at discretion. The beneficiaries, however, have no automatic right to receive any of the trust income or capital, and have no legal rights under the terms of the trust. By using this trust, assets transferred into a discretionary trust are chargeable lifetime transfer and is subject to an immediate lifetime tax charge. The lifetime tax charge is 20% on the excess above the available standard nil rate band (£325,000). Moreover, the trustee is liable to pay tax charge …show more content…

The beneficiary is called a “life tenant” and is legally entitled to the net income of the trust. The trustee has no authority to accumulate the income within the trust, which means the trustee must pass all the income received, less any trustee’s expenses, to the life tenant. However, the life tenant only entitles to the income but not capital. The capital of the trust will pass to another beneficiary called a “remainderman” as on the death of the life tenant, the trust capital will return to this person (Maston, 2017). No inheritance tax payable on assets transferred into IIP trusts before 22 March …show more content…

These are all taxed in the same way that discretionary trusts were. If an individual creates an IIP trust during his/her lifetime, the transfer is immediately chargeable to inheritance tax (20%) and the assets within the trust are relevant property and are therefore subject to exit and principal charges. The 10-year anniversary charge occurs as well. Gift to a trust for disable people is not relevant property trust so the settlor do not have to pay inheritance tax on the transfer of asset as long as the person making the transfer still alive for 7 years after making the transfer (HM Revenue & Customs,

Open Document