If someone in your family has set up a trust, or a Will left a share of a house in trust, there is a fair chance you are a trustee. There is also a fair chance nobody mentioned that the role comes with a job attached.

One part of that job catches people out more than any other. Most trusts have to be registered with HMRC, including plenty that owe no tax at all, and the rules changed on 30 June 2026. Here is where things stand, in plain English.

What the Trust Registration Service is

The Trust Registration Service, usually shortened to TRS, is HMRC's register of trusts. It sits under the money laundering regulations rather than the tax rules, which is why it catches trusts with no tax to pay.

Registering does not change how a trust is taxed. It records who stands behind it: the settlor, the trustees, the beneficiaries and anyone with control over the trust.

These rules come from UK-wide regulations, but trust law is not the same across the UK, so everything below is written for England and Wales.

Which trusts have to be registered with HMRC

Two groups of trust are caught. The first is any trust liable to UK tax. If the trustees owe Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, Stamp Duty Land Tax in England or Land Transaction Tax in Wales, the trust has to be registered. That applies even where a relief covers the bill, if the relief has to be claimed through a tax return.

The second group is the one that surprises people. Almost all UK express trusts have to be registered even when there is no tax to pay. An express trust means one somebody deliberately created, usually in a Will or a deed, rather than one that arose by law.

The deadlines

A new trust that needs registering and owes no tax has 90 days from the point it becomes registrable. A trust created on or after 6 April 2021 that becomes liable to tax also has 90 days from becoming liable.

Older trusts work differently. One facing Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax for the first time has until 5 October in the tax year after the one in which it both received the income or gain and became liable. For other taxes, including Inheritance Tax, the date is 31 January in the tax year after the liability arose.

Registering once is not the end of it. Changes to the trust, or to the people involved, have to be reported within 90 days. For a taxable trust, the trustees must also declare by 31 January, for each tax year in which a liability arises, that the register is up to date, whether or not anything changed.

The trusts that are left out

A list of exclusions applies, and it was widened on 30 June 2026. None of them help if the trust is liable to UK tax. The ones families run into most often:

• a trust in a Will, for two years from the date of the death
• a trust created by a deed of variation while an estate is being sorted out, for two years from the death
• a trust over jointly owned property where the trustees and the beneficiaries are the same people, and, since June 2026, for two years after one of them dies
• a life policy trust that pays out only on death, terminal or critical illness, or permanent or temporary disablement
• a trust set up to open a bank account for a child
• a pilot trust set up before 6 October 2020 holding £100 or less
• trusts holding the assets of a UK registered pension scheme, and trusts for a registered UK charity

A new exclusion for low-value trusts also arrived on 30 June 2026. To qualify, the trust must hold no interest in UK land, no assets of appreciable worth above £2,000 in total, and nothing with a combined value over £10,000 since it was created. Its income must be no more than £5,000 a year, and it must owe no relevant UK tax. A settlor can only use it for one trust.

Several of those exclusions run out after two years. A Will trust still sitting there three years after the death needs registering.

What happens if a trust was never registered

HMRC can charge a fixed penalty of £5,000, and it goes to the lead trustee.

It is not issued automatically. HMRC's guidance says no automatic penalties are issued for registering a trust late. If HMRC finds an unregistered trust it writes first, sets out what needs doing and gives a time limit. A penalty may follow where the trustee does not act within that time limit, or cannot explain why the trust did not need registering. HMRC says it will not charge a penalty where you put things right inside the time limit it sets, and that it decides these cases one at a time. The same approach applies to a register that has gone out of date.

Where to start

Find the paperwork. The Will, the trust deed or the declaration of trust will say who the trustees are and what the trust holds, and whether any deadline has already gone past. Trustees can register through the Trust Registration Service on GOV.UK, which also sets out the main exclusions as they now stand.

Working out which side of the line a trust falls on is harder than it sounds, and June 2026 widened the exclusions while bringing some other trusts in. Our Wills, Trusts and Probate services page sets out how we can help.

If you would like to talk through what this means for you and your family, you can book a free consultation with us. No pressure, just a friendly chat.

This article is general information for England and Wales, not legal or financial advice, and the rules can change. Please seek personal advice about your own circumstances.