When your client creates a discretionary trust it will have its own IHT nil rate band (NRB) which will be used throughout the lifetime of the trust. This is used to calculate the 10 yearly charge commonly called the periodic charge.
The available NRB is calculated at the creation of the trust by looking back seven years and adding up any previous chargeable lifetime transfers (CLTs) that the client made before this new one. These are deducted from the NRB available at the 10 year point. This means that, the NRB for the client’s new trust is the NRB at year 10 less those previous CLT’s.
Tax saving
By creating several trusts over several days your clients are able to take advantage of multiple NRBs, as shown in the following example:
Agnes has just started her IHT planning and this is her first set of gifts. She creates three discretionary gift trusts as follows:
| Date | Value of CLT | |
| Trust 1 | August | £150,000 |
| Trust 2 | September | £100,000 |
| Trust 3 | October | £75,000 |
When the time comes for the calculation of the periodic charge, Agnes’ trusts will have the following nil rate bands to use at the 10 year point:
| NRB for periodic charge | Less value of previous CLT | |
| Trust 1 | NRB at 10 year point | £0 |
| Trust 2 | NRB at 10 year point | -£150,000 |
| Trust 3 | NRB at 10 year point | -£250,000 |
Let us assume the trust funds grow as follows:
| Value of fund at 10 year point | |
| Trust 1 | £300,000 |
| Trust 2 | £200,000 |
| Trust 3 | £150,000 |
And if the NRB increases to £375,000 at the 10 year point, the periodic charge for Agnes’ trusts will be as follows:
| NRB for trust | Value of trust | Taxable at 6% | |
| Trust 1 | £375,000 | £300,000 | £0 |
| Trust 2 | £375,000 – £150,000 = £225,000 | £200,000 | £0 |
| Trust 3 | £375,000 – £150,000 – £100,000 = £125,000 | £150,000 | £25,000 x 6% = £1,500 |
Trust 1 has the full NRB to use at the 10 year point, and, as the value of the trust fund is below this, there is no tax to pay.
Trust 2 has the NRB at the 10 year point less the previous CLT of £150,000, which gives £225,000 of NRB to use against the trust, and, again, as the value of the trust fund is below this, there is no tax to pay.
Trust 3 has the NRB at the 10 year point less the two previous CLTs of £150,000 and £100,000, which gives £125,000 of NRB to use. However, as the trust fund is £150,000, which exceeds this by £25,000, this results in a tax charge of £1,500.
If we compare this with the position if Agnes had just set up 1 discretionary trust the calculation of the periodic charge would be:
| NRB for trust | Value of trust | Taxable at 6% | |
| Trust 1 | £375,000 | £650,000 | £275,000 x 6% = £16,500 |
As you can see, creating multiple trusts for your clients can make tax savings for them at the 10 year anniversary for the calculation of the periodic charge.
Beware of the related settlements rules
Under the statutory definition of “related settlements”, contained in section 62 Inheritance Tax Act 1984, related settlements are treated as a single settlement and so would not each have a separate NRB.
For two or more trusts to be related settlements, the settlor must be the same in each case and the trusts must have commenced on the same day.
Make sure when setting up multiple trusts for clients that they are set up on different days and the investment bonds start on different days.
Same day additions
There were anti avoidance measures introduced, which created a new section 62A, which states that trusts will be treated as related if the value of property in each trust is increased by a transfer of value on the same day, for example, if assets are added to them on the same day.
When using multiple trusts, your clients ought to set them up on separate dates and ensure that funds transferred into the trusts are paid on different days, on set up and when topping up the trust.
Planning
Don’t forget that, if you are setting up loan trusts and gift trusts for your clients at the same time, there is no transfer of value under a loan trust, so set this up first. This will potentially give the client 100% of the NRB for the loan trust and also 100% of the NRB for the gift trust to use at the periodic charge point.
If your clients are using loan trusts in their IHT planning consideration should be given to setting up multiple smaller trusts. This will not only help with the periodic charge point giving multiple NRBs to use, it also gives the client flexibility when it comes to waiving the loans. Under certain provider’s loan plans you can only waive all of the loan. There is no facility to waive part of the loan. If you have multiple smaller plans it gives clients the ability to waive each loan at different times, keeping some if needed for future use.
One last point to note is that, with the extension of the Trust Registration Service, each of the trusts will have to be separately registered with HMRC.