Accountants and lawyers administer trusts year in and year out, and are often advised to 'read the deed' when it comes to determining how to administer a trust. This paper covers some of what you need to know to read a deed, and also some other trust concepts that you may have been taught in university (if a lawyer) or have not been taught at all (if an accountant).
This paper covers:
- Traps to watch out for in the establishment and structuring of a trust
- If you need to make a capital distribution for streaming purposes, or to return capital from a unit trust, how do you find the capital distribution provision?
- Why do you care when a trust vests, what is the rule against perpetuities and why is there often a reference to the 'issue' of King George VI in a deed?
- How do you vest a trust properly and issues related to vesting a trust
- When will a unit trust be a fixed trust for NSW land tax purposes – what do you look at and what has changed as a result of Sayden's case?
- What might cause your trust deed to be defective, and what happens if your trust deed is defective
- How can you fix a defect in a trust deed? How far can you go in varying your trust? What if there is no explicit variation power?
- What if you have lost the trust deed? What can and should you do?
- Apart from trusts created by deed, known as express trusts, other trusts such as resulting and constructive trusts can result in tax 'fixes' for unusual transactions – what are these types of trusts and how do they function?