A complicated part of a trust is its tax treatment, the fact that it is a taxpayer of last resort. This means other taxpayers may have to reflect trust generated income and capital gains in their tax returns rather than the trust on its tax return. This may affect provisional tax returns (due at the end of August and February each year) and annual tax returns.
Given the recent changes to trusts in South Africa and with the SA Revenue Service (Sars) zooming in on trusts, taxpayers and tax practitioners need to heed the warning below:
Donors/funders of trusts
Few people are aware of or apply the attribution rules applicable to donors/funders of trusts. This is certainly not
