Trust Registration Service
All Unincorporated Clubs with elected Trustees will need to be aware of the expanded remit of the Trust Registration Service. All Clubs with Trustees will need to register their Trustees with the Trust Registration Service. Clubs which are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority do not need to take any action.
Clubs which have elected the ACC as their Trustees do not need to take any action at this stage– we will complete the registration formalities on your behalf.
Clubs which have not elected the ACC as their Trustees will be needing to register their personal Trustees with the Trust Registration Service (TRS) going forwards and will need to keep the Trust Registration Service updated as and when the Club’s Trustees may change in the future.
Background:
In June 2017, the HMRC Trust Register came into effect following the adoption of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The Trust Register was introduced to improve transparency around the beneficial ownership of assets held in trusts with trustees required to provide details of the trust itself (including its tax residence status and the assets it holds), as well as information in respect of the settlor(s), trustee(s), and potential beneficiaries. Information was then required to be kept up to date by way of an annual declaration by the trustees.
Changes to the TRS
From 6 October 2020, as part of the UK’s implementation of the Fifth Money Laundering Directive (“5MLD”), the registration requirement was extended to include the following trusts (again with limited exceptions):-
• All UK express trusts, i.e. deliberately created by a settlor (which are not specifically excluded) regardless of whether the trustees incur a liability to UK tax. A UK resident trust is one where either all trustees are UK resident; there is a mix of UK and non-UK resident trustees and the settlor of the trust was resident and domiciled in the UK at the time when the trust was set up or when the settlor added funds to the trust; or there is a corporate trustee that is incorporated in the UK.
Timing
HMRC’s online registration facility for registering new trusts required to do so under the 5MLD opened on 1 September 2021. Trustees can register trusts via GOV.UK.
Whilst the money laundering regulations require express trusts to register on the Trust Register by 10 March 2022, HMRC announced the deadline is extended with trustees required to register a non-taxable trust under their control that was in existence on or after 6 October 2020 by 1 September 2022. However, where newly created UK trusts or non-UK trusts trigger an obligation to enrol on the Trust Register on or after 3 June 2022, the deadline for doing so is 90 days from the event that triggered the obligation, even if this is later than 1 September 2022. Additionally, trustees will also have 90 days from the date a change of certain circumstances occurs to update any relevant information on the Trust Register.
Access to TRS information
Access to TRS is currently restricted to government authorities but this will extended to anyone with a ‘legitimate interest’ under the new regulations. The government have confirmed that guidance will be provided as to how requests will be reviewed and access will only be given where there is evidence of counter money laundering or terrorist financing activity. The government have also confirmed that necessary safeguards will be in place to reduce the risk of information being released where it could lead to disproportionate harm.
Therefore, Clubs with Trustees (excluding Clubs which have elected the ACC as Trustees) must do the following:
Register their Trustees by the 1 September 2022.
This can be done online by following this link: http://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-a-trust-as-a-trustee.
Once a Trust is registered, any changes to the Trust such as a change of Trustee must be submitted to HMRC within 90 days of the change occurring. Once a year Clubs will have to submit a return confirming that the Club has either updated the details on the trust register or confirming that there have been no changes to the trust.
The ACC Trusteeship Service
In light of these changes, we anticipate that some Clubs may wish to consider electing the ACC as their Trustees. Electing the ACC would mean that the Trust would remain stable from year to year and therefore reduces the amount of changes that need to be notified and also simply means that once a year the Club can just confirm that no changes to the Trust have been made.
We can confirm that ACC Trusteeship is a service which Clubs are increasingly taking advantage of and we now act on behalf of approximately 200 of our 400 unincorporated member Clubs. The remaining ACC Clubs are mainly registered as Co-Operative Societies with the Financial Conduct Authority.
A brief description of our Trusteeship service can be found in the following extract from the ACC’s Club Law and Management book Q&A section which covers the fundamental points:
Q. Our club is unincorporated and the committee wish to propose the possibility of transferring the Trustee responsibilities to the ACC as we are finding it increasingly difficult to find members who are willing to take on this important role. Could you please confirm how such a change would work in practice and why it would be beneficial to the club?
This transfer of Trusteeship has increasingly become popular amongst unincorporated clubs such as yours as there are two main benefits for the club. The first is that the ACC will pay for all legal expenses involved with the transfer of Trusteeship and once elected will act as the club’s Trustees on a permanent continuous basis, thereby also saving the club future legal costs since Trustees will not be changed by re-election as they are now. The second is that the Association’s financial and legal resources are such that the club’s position will be greatly strengthened when negotiating loans or defending itself against legal action taken by a third party. This Association will not be involved in the day-to-day business of the club and will be subject to the lawful instructions of the committee in respect of its role as the club’s Trustee in exactly the same way as the existing Trustees.
Our Solicitors will deal with all the necessary legal work and there will be no charge to the Club. Importantly, we act as Trustees in accordance with your Club’s Trust Deed and your Club’s Rules. If on any future occasion the Members wish to revert the Trusteeship back to within the membership of the Club then they may do in accordance to the procedure set out in your Club Rules. I do not however, know of any occasion when this has happened. The ACC Trusteeship service is only applicable when we take over sole Trusteeship of a Club since I am unable to use our trust funds if Club Members remain as Trustees. Therefore, if the Members agree to elect the ACC as Trustees, any current Trustee would need to resign their office.
We can confirm that the ACC does not become involved with the day to day business of any Club for which we act as Trustee. We do not attend any Committee meetings unless specifically invited to do so (and such occasions would be very rare indeed) and we do not exercise any vote. The Club will continue to be able to call upon the ACC for advice on any matter without needing to make reference to our Trusteeship. In short, we keep the two responsibilities entirely separate. We will only act on behalf of the Club in accordance with the lawful instructions of the Committee and Members. The Club Committee will therefore continue to run the Club’s affairs and will only refer matters to the ACC as and when they consider it appropriate to do so.
There are three important points to make at a Meeting in respect of ACC Trusteeship and these are the only points on which the Members really require confirmation.
1.) Is it a takeover? No, we hold the Trusteeship on behalf of the Club in accordance with the Club’s rules, and the Club’s Trust Deed. The Committee continue to manage the Club’s day to day affairs without any outside influence.
2.) Are there any costs? No, we have a special fund which pays for this type of transfer and there are no ongoing costs to the Club.
3.) Can we ever elect Club Trustees again? Yes, if at some future time the Members, for whatever reason, decide to elect Trustees from within the Club then they can. To my knowledge, however, this has never been requested.
Please note, when Members elect the ACC to act as Trustees, this is never a reflection on the ability to of the existing Trustees to fulfil their duties and legal obligations but simply a reflection that it is becoming harder and harder to find local Trustees willing to take on the potential liability of being Club Trustees.
Any Clubs which wish to discuss a possible transfer of trusteeship to the ACC are welcome to get in contact with us for specific advice.
MPLC Update
We have been contacted by a number of Clubs who have received letters, emails and phone calls from the MPLC – the Motion Picture Licensing Company Ltd
We can confirm that MPLC is a legitimate organisation but that Clubs only need to obtain a licence from them under specific circumstances.
Crucially, Clubs do not tend to need an MPLC licence to show content such as sports, music channels or Sky News. Therefore, for most Clubs the only license that is required is a Television Licence. In the ACC’s experience it is rare that a Club would need to obtain an MPLC licence as most Clubs do not screen films or drama series.
MPLC itself represents licence holders such as film studios and television production companies which produce content such as dramas or comedies. If a Club showed any of this content then an MPLC licence may need to be obtained.
However, Clubs which only show channels such as Sky Sports, BT Sports, Sky News, sports shown on free to view channels such as BBC One or Channel 4 or a music channel are unlikely to be required to obtain an MPLC licence.
If you are unsure of what licence you require please let us know and we will try to assist.
Examples of programmes that do and do not require a licence are below:
Six Nations – No licence
Match of the Day – No licence
Euros – No licence
World Cup – No licence
Sky Sports – No licence
Eastenders – MPLC Licence
BT Sports – No licence
Sky News – No licence
Sky Atlantic – No license
Sky Movies – No licence
The ACC contacted Sky UK regarding MPLC. Sky provided us with the following statement:
The showing of Sky’s own paid for channels and partner channels does not require an MPLC license because the Sky Subscription Agreement covers this license directly from the licensor (by virtue of Sky’s underlying rights agreements with the rights owners).
MPLC should be explaining to Clubs that an MPLC licence is not required should the Club just wish to show channels such as Sky Sports, Sky News, Music channels and sports shown on terrestrial television such as Six Nations, Match of the Day, Euros, World Cup etc.
If Clubs are concerned at the information they have been provided by MPLC please let us know. Clubs can also raise their concerns directly by emailing MPLC Head of Licencing Tyrone Samuel at TSamuel@mplc.com.