Many of Moore Australia’s clients have discretionary trusts. For some clients, understandably discretionary trusts can be hard to get their head around given they are largely driven by historical trust law and from a tax perspective, some complicated tax law.
Added to the complications, many trusts have a company acting as their trustee. Some people therefore get confused whether they have a company or a trust. Technically of course they have both in this situation, but the company is purely acting as trustee, and it is the trust itself preparing financial statements and lodging a tax return. When looking at estate planning there are further issues, given the trust assets generally do not form part of the estate (albeit any loans by the deceased to the trust are generally assets of the estate).
Learn more about discretionary trusts, how they work, roles and responsibilities and more with our easy-to-follow guide.
If you would like further information in relation to this, please contact Brett Cornwall or your Moore Australia advisor as soon as possible.