Annual Trust Tax Return

Benefits of Accountant-Prepared Trust Tax Returns

If you are reading this, then you either have a trust, or you are considering setting one up. Running a trust can provide some great benefits in asset protection for your family’s financial future.

Unfortunately, the ATO has taken a view of trusts as a way for the wealthy to conceal income, evade tax or to launder money. Therefore, incorrectly lodging or missing a trust tax return deadline can result in severe penalties.

If your trust derives income, then a qualified accountant can assist in navigating the complicated tax implications that may involve your trust.

At Box Advisory Services, our Chartered Accountants understand your needs, and we can analyse, prepare and lodge all types of trust tax returns.

What Our Trust Tax Accountants Look After

We prepare the annual tax return for family trusts and other trusts that run a business or hold investments. The return reports the trust’s income and each beneficiary’s share of it, so the trust return and the beneficiaries’ returns need to agree.

It suits trustees who run a family business through a trust, families who hold property or shares in a trust, and anyone who has just set up a trust and wants the first year done properly.

The most time-sensitive step comes before 30 June, when the trustee decides how the year’s income will be distributed. We look at the trust’s expected income with you before then, so the resolutions are based on real figures.

Our director, Davie Mach, has over 15 years of experience advising on tax, and you deal with a client manager you can email or call during the year.

Records, Software and Timing for Your Trust Tax Return

If the trust runs a business, we work from its file in Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, and its BAS can be prepared from the same records. If it only holds investments, bank, share and property statements are usually enough.

The return is prepared after 30 June. As a registered tax agent, we can lodge it under the ATO lodgement program, which gives later due dates for many returns, and we can prepare the beneficiaries’ returns at the same time.

Book a free 20-minute meeting with one of our accountants for a later date, or call 1300 411 022. If 30 June is close and resolutions still need to be made, call us or book a paid priority appointment through our booking page.