Nextgen Accountants offers trust tax returns for business owners across Adelaide.

Our team of experienced accountants can help you through your journey from starting a trust to maintaining your trust year in and year out.

But what is a trust

A trust is a business structure where a trustee carries out the business on behalf of the trust’s member (this is also known as a beneficiary)

A trustee can be a person or a company and is responsible for everything in the trust, including income and losses.

Trust structures are expensive and complicated to set up, and are generally used to protect the business assets for beneficiaries. The trustee decides how business profits should be distributed to the beneficiaries.

A trust can hold any asset such as shares, property, businesses, or a business premise like an office or warehouse.  

The trust deed contains the details of the specific rules that are set out by the trustee regarding the use and management of the assets.

For tax purposes, however, a trust is treated as an entity and is required to lodge a trust tax return on or before the due date.

The trust tax return is the responsibility of the trustee which he can do by himself or with the help of a registered tax agent.

A lot of business setups in Adelaide our moving towards a trust as it can save you a lot of tax with its flexibility to distribute income.

It is always a smart choice to get the tax return done with an experienced tax accountant to get the maximum tax savings and also to comply with all the applicable rules regarding tax filing and due dates. Our team can help you with this.

When it comes to tax time it is common for accountants to distribute the income among all the beneficiaries of the Trust.

For example, if the trust setup is made using 2 trustees 50% will go to each member.

However, if one of the members has another job for which they receive income then it can be worked that 1 member gets 70% and the other gets 30%. Which then gives each person 50% of the total combined income from the trust and the additional job income.

If you would like further clarification we are here to help & for further information & examples please call and talk to our accounting team.

Family Trust Tax Return

A family trust is a discretionary trust that is set up for holding the assets of the family or running a family business.

The main aim of this trust formation is generally the protection of assets, estate planning, and also lowering your tax by distributing income to family members in a lower tax bracket.

While the income of a trust is generally distributed and taxed accordingly in the hands of the beneficiaries, an overall trust loss cannot be distributed. It may, however, be available to offset against future assessable income of the trust.

Benefits under a family trust

• The trustee has the ability under the trust deed to distribute profits under the trust to beneficiaries which is done to get into the lower tax bracket on most occasions.
• Capital gains can be distributed to the beneficiary members and individuals to get the benefit of capital gains discounts.
• A fully franked dividend can also be distributed to the beneficiary or family member making him, or her entitled to franking credits. (if you have shares)