Taxing times for Trusts and Estates – meet our expert Ben Staff 

We advise clients on all matters relating to trusts and estates, and Trusts and Estates Tax Manager Ben Staff, is one of the team managing nearly 700 trusts on behalf of clients, ranging in value from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions. 

The team advise on all matters relating to trusts, including acting for and as trustees with a diverse asset base including quoted investments, commercial and residential properties, land, partnerships and private company shares. They also advise clients on the formation, management and administration of trusts, as well as inheritance tax planning using trusts.  

The team manage all the compliance work for trusts including completion of inheritance tax returns, 60-day reporting on the sale of residential property, holdover relief forms, trust registration service, automatic exchange of information as well as the annual accounts and tax returns. 

Based in our London office but working with clients across the South East, Ben started working life as an accountant, before he discovered all things trust and tax related. 

Ben explains:” In 2008 I decided to go straight into work and trained to be an accountant with a firm that did a lot of investigations work into clients’ personal assets, which were generally held in a trust or another structure to distort the ownership and this got me hooked. I then decided to retrain and specialise in trust and estate work and took the STEP qualifications. Since then, I’ve worked with wealth management firms and a couple of accountancy firms before joining Kreston Reeves in February 2023. At my previous firms, I specialised in working in tax, trusts and estates and the move to Kreston Reeves means I am now working with much larger trusts and often more complex issues.” 

“With every trust there are different challenges and family dynamics to be aware of and matters can quickly become complicated, especially where they have grown in value. Trustees have a fiduciary duty to beneficiaries, but sometimes they try to do too much themselves and they need our support to sort matters out, especially around compliance.” 

Trusts have been around for hundreds of years – dating back to when Medieval Knights departed for the Crusades, leaving their land vulnerable to seizure, most adopted the practice of putting their land in trust, transferring ownership to a trusted relative, friend or local priest, for the benefit of the knight’s wife and children, who had no legal standing to own property. It isn’t just the super wealthy who have trusts. Trusts are used for asset protection for vulnerable people as well as to help keep wealth within families for the next generation, for example to help pay for school or university fees.  

Ben continues: “A typical day for me is to touch base with the team, look at the issues of the day such as compliance or to provide technical advice. I talk to clients and colleagues and then ensure matters are up to date such as tax returns. Many different types of assets can be held in a trust. I recently acted for a trust selling a commercial woodland and dealt with all aspects of the sale and reporting on behalf of the trustees.”  

“A lot of time is also spent liaising with HMRC. They have a Wealthy Individual team and if they begin an inquiry then they will look at all aspects of the trust’s management to ensure compliance. We often get involved where trustees have been managing affairs, but they have struggled to keep up with compliance as the trust’s assets have grown or matured. We step in to get matters back on track and ensure compliance with HMRC rules and that outstanding tax and interest is settled.” 

“A lot of clients are currently looking at the change in government here in the UK and whether there might be any tax changes in the autumn statement which could affect their trust arrangements. The simple answer at the moment is that we don’t have any specific details, however we can review with trustees the position of the trust and decisions they are considering so they are in the best position to make an informed decision now or wait and see if the rules change.” 

Outside of work Ben keeps fit via Karate, a sport he has enjoyed since he was 8 and he regularly attends the Dojo on a weekly basis. He also enjoys spending time with his family and in sunny weather loves nothing more than to get the BBQ out and relax.