Trust & Estate Tax Errors for Accountants - How to Find & Fix Them

Introduction

Trust and estate tax errors often remain hidden until accounts are prepared, a distribution is proposed or HMRC raises a query. The original problem may have arisen several years earlier and could involve incomplete records, incorrect certificates or a misunderstanding between trustees, executors and their professional advisers.

Correcting the position requires more than knowledge of the underlying tax rules. The accountant must reconstruct what happened, quantify the effect, decide what can be amended and communicate the problem appropriately.

Drawing on anonymised examples from practice, this new virtual classroom session will examine common trust and estate tax errors and provide a structured approach to investigating and correcting them.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive session will cover the following:

• Recognising warning signs in trust and estate records
• Incorrect allocation between income and capital
• Missing or misunderstood chargeable-event certificates
• Incorrect forms R185 and beneficiary information
• Tax-pool discrepancies and unsupported distributions
• Trust-management expenses treated incorrectly
• Gains reported by the wrong taxpayer
• Appropriations documented after an asset has been sold
• Income omitted during the administration period
• Reconciling prior returns with accounts and underlying records
• Establishing the tax, interest and penalty consequences
• Amending returns and making disclosures to HMRC
• Explaining historic errors to trustees, executors and beneficiaries
• Improving review procedures to prevent the error recurring

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.