An annual return must be lodged through trust in Australia, irrespective of the amount of income derived by the trust. The return is to be launched by any one of the trustees who is a resident of Australia. If there is no trustee resident in Australia, the return must be lodged by the trust public officer or, when a public officer is appointed, by the trust’s agent in Australia. Trust returns are usually required to be launched by 31 October after the end of the income you to which the return relates. Under the group consolidation regime, the head company wholly owned group of entities including trusts may lodge a single consolidated tax return. The trustee of a transparent trust or a secured purchase trust is not required to lodge a return provided that, broadly speaking, the income of the trust estate is vested indefeasibly in the beneficiary.
The Commissioner of taxation has warned that he will act against tax deferral scheme is that involve interposing private companies between trusts and their individual beneficiaries, and switching income between one and the other in different years. Were such a scheme comes into the Commissioner’s attention, he will give notice requiring immediate lodgement associated trust and beneficiary returns, despite the usual lodgement rules, and give priority to processing them. The balance of the assessment will be payable in 30 days. The return form and the associated instructions should be checked to see what information needs to be provided with returns. Many elections available to taxpayers under the tax law are not required to be in writing or lodged with returns.
Whether or not an election has been made will generally be evident from the calculation of taxable income as disclosed in the return and from the records required to be kept to verify the calculation. This is the reason that filing a tax return for a trust is reasonably complicated and is best handled by a qualified professional such as a CPA.