UK Trust Registration Service (TRS) in 2026: HMRC Rules, Deadlines, and Penalties for Non-Compliance

The UK Trust Registration Service (TRS) is the HMRC online register of express trusts. It was created in 2017 to implement the EU Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive and was widened in 2020 by the Fifth Directive so that most UK express trusts must now register even if they have no tax liability. Trustees who have missed the deadline frequently arrive in our office only after their bank or conveyancer has asked for a TRS proof of registration and the transaction has stalled. This article sets out the current rules, deadlines, process and the penalty regime as they stand in April 2026.

Legal basis

The registration obligation sits in the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, as amended by the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and the 2020 amendment regulations. Regulation 42 requires trustees of relevant trusts to maintain accurate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information and to enter it on the register HMRC keeps under regulation 45. The underlying rationale is transparency of beneficial ownership, in line with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force.

Which trusts must register

Two streams of trusts are caught. The first is tax-relevant trusts, meaning any express trust with a UK tax liability (income tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, stamp duty land tax or stamp duty reserve tax). This stream is unchanged from the original 2017 regime. The second, introduced in 2020, is all express trusts with UK trustees or UK assets regardless of tax liability. This is the broader category that catches most private family trusts, including bare trusts and declarations of trust over real property.

Common examples that do require registration: a discretionary trust settled by a UK resident, a life interest trust in a will, a declaration of trust over a buy-to-let between siblings, a trust holding shares for a minor, an employee ownership trust. Less obvious examples include bare trusts set up for grandchildren, nominee arrangements over property, and pilot trusts created to receive future assets.

Excluded trusts

Schedule 3A to the 2017 Regulations lists trusts that are exempt. These include trusts imposed by statute (such as intestacy trusts), pension schemes registered under Part 4 of the Finance Act 2004, charitable trusts registered with the Charity Commission, will trusts wound up within two years of death, trusts for bereaved minors, co-ownership trusts where the trustees and beneficiaries are the same people, and certain insurance policy trusts. HMRC's TRSM23000 manual lists the full set of exclusions and is the starting point for any analysis.

The exclusions are narrower than many trustees assume. A trust that looks like a bare administrative arrangement (for instance, a parent holding a child's investment account) will usually need to register unless it fits squarely within one of the listed exclusions. When in doubt, register.

Deadlines

For trusts created on or after 6 October 2020 (or in existence on that date without a tax liability), the deadline for first registration was 1 September 2022. Any trust that was not then registered is already late. For trusts created on or after 1 September 2022, the deadline is 90 days from the date the trust is created or becomes liable to UK tax, whichever is earlier. Changes to the trust (a new trustee, a change of beneficiary details, a change of address, a change in value) must be notified within 90 days of the change. Even where there is no change, an annual declaration of no change is required before 31 January each year where the trust has a self-assessment tax liability.

Information required

Trustees must supply the trust name and date of creation, the country of residence and administration, a statement of assets, the tax residence of the trust, and full details of the settlor, every trustee, every beneficiary, the protector (if any), and any other person exercising effective control. For each individual this means full name, date of birth, nationality, country of residence, and National Insurance number or, for non-UK residents, a passport or ID number and a residential address. Corporate parties must be identified by name, registration number and registered office.

Where a class of beneficiaries is named (such as "the settlor's grandchildren"), the trustees need only describe the class until a beneficiary receives a benefit. Once a distribution is made, that individual must be added to the register with full details.

How to register

Registration is done through HMRC's online TRS portal, which requires the lead trustee to have a Government Gateway account and, if the trust has a tax liability, a Unique Taxpayer Reference. Agents register on behalf of trustees using the Agent Services Account. Once a trust is registered, the lead trustee (or their agent) receives a Unique Reference Number (URN) for non-taxable trusts or continues with the existing UTR for taxable trusts. The URN is the reference a bank, conveyancer, or investment provider will ask for when proof of TRS registration is required.

The portal is not intuitive. Common friction points include the lead trustee's identity verification, mismatched names between the Government Gateway account and the trust documentation, and incomplete address histories for non-UK resident beneficiaries. We recommend keeping a data pack ready before logging in: full copy of the trust deed, NI numbers, dates of birth, residency statements, and asset values at the date of creation.

Access to the register

Unlike the Companies House register, the TRS is not freely open to the public. Access to third parties is governed by the data sharing framework in regulation 45ZA. Law enforcement agencies can access the register automatically. Others must demonstrate a legitimate interest in preventing money laundering or terrorist financing and submit a written request to HMRC. The High Court considered the legitimate interest test in recent years and HMRC's published policy on third-party access, but in practice most private individuals cannot see another person's trust data.

Penalties for late or missing registration

HMRC operates a soft penalty regime at present. Where a trustee has made a genuine mistake, the published position is that a nudge letter is issued and no financial penalty is charged for a first offence. Deliberate failure attracts a fixed penalty of up to GBP 5,000 per offence under regulation 76. In practice HMRC has also signalled that it will move to a harder stance where trustees ignore reminders or repeat the same error, and agents report increased enforcement activity in 2025 and 2026.

The more serious risk for trustees is not the HMRC penalty but the knock-on effect. Banks, investment managers and conveyancers are now required under their own AML procedures to ask for a TRS proof of registration before onboarding a trust client or completing a property transaction. A trust that is not registered can find itself locked out of its own bank accounts, unable to sell property, and unable to open new investment accounts. Trustees who are in breach of the 90-day rule should register immediately and then deal with any HMRC correspondence that follows.

Practical issues we see

Several problems come up repeatedly. Declarations of trust over family homes and buy-to-lets are routinely missed, especially where the trust was drafted informally. Trusts holding shares in family companies are often registered only when the shares are sold. Deceased settlors' trusts that continue as ongoing life interest or discretionary trusts in the will are sometimes treated as probate matters and not as express trusts needing TRS registration. Nominee arrangements in commercial property transactions are another frequent blind spot.

A sensible compliance checklist for any firm advising trust clients: identify every express trust in the client file, apply the Schedule 3A exclusions carefully, record the date of creation and any events triggering a 90-day clock, ensure the lead trustee has a Government Gateway account, register within time, diarise the annual declaration, and update within 90 days of any change.

Interaction with the Register of Overseas Entities

Trustees who hold UK land through a non-UK corporate vehicle also need to think about the Register of Overseas Entities maintained by Companies House under the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022. The two regimes overlap but do not replace each other. Where a non-UK company is the legal owner of UK property and is itself the trustee of a trust, both registers must be satisfied, and the information has to be kept consistent between them.

What to do if you are late

Trustees who discover they should have registered months or years ago should not wait. Registration is still possible at any time. In our experience HMRC has generally accepted a first-time late registration without imposing a penalty where the trustee has acted promptly on discovery. The lead trustee should register online, record the reason for the delay, and keep a contemporaneous note of when and how the omission came to light. If HMRC sends a nudge letter, respond within the time stated.

Looking ahead

HMRC has signalled further changes to the TRS in 2026 as part of its broader economic crime programme, including possible alignment with the Register of Overseas Entities and additional data fields on beneficial ownership. Trustees and their advisers should check the HMRC Trust Registration Service Manual regularly and maintain a register of internal trusts that captures the data HMRC is likely to ask for when the rules change. The direction of travel is clear: more transparency, more sharing with law enforcement, and less tolerance for oversight.