New Trustee Duties: More Admin, Impossible Deadlines and Hefty Penalties
“A trustee has a responsibility to guard the assets of others with a higher degree of care than he does his own.” (John Ashcroft)
Onerous new duties have recently been imposed on all trustees of all trusts – by government through legislative amendments, and also by SARS – in addition to their existing fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of all the beneficiaries and “with the care, diligence and skill which can reasonably be expected of a person who manages the affairs of another”.
The legislative amendments follow South Africa’s grey listing by the global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, and the subsequent changes to the Trust Property Control Act (TPCA) and the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), among others.
The new trustee duties will require extensive and time-consuming additional administration, and have impossible deadlines, while non-compliance can result in hefty penalties. This makes professional trust administration assistance crucial for trustees, now and in the future.
Who is affected?
All trustees – not only independent trustees – are affected by the imposition of these new trustee duties.
In addition, all trusts are affected, regardless of the nature of the trust or the value of the assets in the trust, including family trusts, commercial and business trusts as well as public benefit trusts. Not even dormant trusts are specifically excluded.
The new regulations will also affect companies that provide services to trusts. Under FICA, the scope of ‘accountable institutions’ has recently been expanded to include trust service providers, company service providers, legal practitioners, crypto asset service providers, and clearing system participants, among others. These accountable institutions must conduct customer due diligence on their clients, including verifying identities, assessing the risk of illicit activities, and reporting suspicious activities. This will require significant resources, time and expertise from both trustees and accountable institutions.
What are the new duties and deadlines?
The legislative changes to the TPCA have given rise to trustee duties relating specifically to beneficial ownership registers and records of accountable institutions. In addition, SARS has issued new reporting requirements.
- Updated beneficial ownership registers – trustees are now required to collect, record and maintain detailed information and specific records of the beneficial owners of the trust – who are now far more broadly defined to include founders, trustees, beneficiaries, donors and protectors. In addition, trustees must lodge a register of the prescribed information with the Master’s Office, with only a trustee or a person with power of attorney allowed to use the Master’s portal to do so.
- Updated records of interactions with accountable institutions – trustees are now required to collect, record and maintain details pertaining to accountable institutions with which trustees have dealings, including, for example, accountable institutions acting as agents to perform trustee functions and accountable institutions providing any services to trustees. As noted, the definition of “accountable institutions” has also widened considerably.
- Submitting an IT3(t) for each beneficiary – SARS recently issued a draft notice requiring trustees to submit an IT3(t), which provides details of any amount vested in a beneficiary including income (net of expenditure), capital gains and capital amounts distributed by the end of September so that beneficiaries’ tax returns can be pre-populated.
What are the penalties?
Failure to comply with the obligations as contained in the TPCA is an offence and, on conviction, trustees are liable to a fine not exceeding R10 million, or imprisonment for a period of five years or both.
Trustees are already non-compliant with the TPCA, as the new regulations were published after business hours on Friday 31 March 2023 and became effective on the next day, Saturday 1 April 2023. This means that trustees were simply unable to comply with the regulations by the deadline, both due to the timing of the gazette and delays in establishing the requisite online electronic register on the Master’s ICMS Web Portal.
SARS’s IT3(t) deadline seems more doable, but in reality, the 30th of September is not that far away. Various stakeholders are submitting comments regarding the implementation of this requirement to submit an IT3(t) for each beneficiary, but probably no more than a delay could be expected.
Considering the extent of the new duties, the deadlines, and the hefty penalties involved, trustees are certainly well-advised to seek professional assistance to comply with these additional obligations and to ensure compliance.
