Trustees acting as trustees need not register as tax advisers

HMRC has added a 'Trusts and trustees' section to its manual on mandatory tax adviser registration (MTAR10200)GOV, setting out that trustees acting in their capacity as trustees are not required to register as tax advisers merely because of the tax work they do for the trustGOV.

A trustee will not be required to register merely because, in the course of acting as trustee, they prepare or submit information or returns relating to the trust, arrange payment of tax, provide tax-related input concerning the trust, or communicate with HMRC about the trust's tax affairsGOV. In those circumstances, the manual says, the trustee is acting in their trustee capacity rather than providing a separate tax-advisory service to a client. Where there is more than one trustee, one may act as the principal-acting-trustee in dealings with HMRC, although the other trustees remain accountable — consistent with the standing rule that trustees must nominate one principal acting trustee to manage the trust's tax while the others stay accountable and can be charged tax and interest if the trust does not pay.

The treatment applies to an individual or a corporate trustee acting in that capacity. Where an employee interacts with HMRC on behalf of a corporate trustee, that employee is not personally required to register merely because of that interaction; the corporate trustee's own position depends on the capacity in which it acts and the nature of the services it provides.

The manual draws two boundaries. The treatment does not extend automatically to a separate person or organisation that provides tax services to the trustees or the trust under an independent commercial arrangementGOV — an external adviser engaged commercially is still in the registration frameGOV. And membership of the same corporate group as a corporate trustee does not by itself bring the group-undertaking exception in paragraph 1(1)(f) of Schedule 20 to the Finance Act 2026 into playGOV; those arrangements must be considered on their particular facts.

The same update trims the manual's closing assurance for organisations in non-group structures. The page previously said that where it was later clarified an organisation should have registered, HMRC would work with and support the organisation to comply within a reasonable timeframe; that sentence is gone. What remains is the good-faith protection: an organisation that relies on the guidance to determine it should not register is treated as compliant, with no sanctions or penalties for the failure. Registration itself is being introduced to raise standards in the tax advice market, requiring registration where advice is provided by way of business to a third party, with the manual's examples described as transitional pending specific Schedule 20 exemptions.

Legal basis: HMRC Mandatory Tax Adviser Registration manual MTAR10200, 'Trusts and trustees' section; Finance Act 2026 Schedule 20 paragraph 1(1)(f).