A room without a door** - Default income provisions for family trusts

Following last week’s post, another issue that arises relatively regularly in relation to family trusts is the trust deed not containing a default provision for the distribution of trust income.

While there are many competing arguments, the preferred position appears to be that the absence of such a clause should not make the trust invalid.

This said, without the inclusion of a default income provision, it will generally be the case that a failure by a trustee to validly distribute income in any particular year will mean that the income is accumulated and the trustee will be taxed.
An earlier post, explains that where the trustee is liable to tax this will generally be at the maximum rate of personal tax – that is including the Medicare levy and similar surcharges and without access to the general 50% CGT discount.

As usual, please make contact if you would like access to any of the content mentioned in this post.

** For the trainspotters, the title of today's post is riffed from the Psychedelic Furs song 'Love my way’.

View here: