12 December 2024 – The following updates have been made to the Trust guide:
Beneficial Ownership
The Trust Property Control Act (57 of 1988) stipulates that all beneficiaries who can be identified by name must be reported as Beneficial Owners (BO). Therefore, those beneficiaries who can be identified by name will have to report in terms of the BO reporting requirements. The moment a Trust benefit is vested (distributed) in a particular beneficiary (they are identified by name), their details must be reported for BO purposes.
SARS aims to record all beneficial owners of registered Trusts to ensure compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requirements. To achieve this, certain information must be submitted via eFiling on the ITR12T return. The required supporting documents may include, but are not limited to:
- An organogram, illustrative, or schematic diagram depicting effective control and how the affairs of the Trust relate to other entities (interest in other entities, i.e., ownership structure in the event of entity-layering);
- Compile an Excel Spreadsheet with the beneficiaries’ details (as per BO requirements) and then submit/upload the Spreadsheet as a separate document; or
- Such other document, which will elaborate on Beneficial Ownership in relation to the Trust.
With regard to the capture of beneficial ownership information, it is mandatory for the current year’s return that at least one document be submitted that relates to beneficial ownership information. In the event there are more than 20 beneficiary owners, the taxpayer must upload a supporting document that reflects the additional beneficiary owner(s).
- For the remainder, a schedule should be attached that provides detail (as required) of the remainder of the beneficial owners.
- Note that this schedule is mandatory even if the beneficial owners are less than 20 and where the beneficial owner is a legal entity or other legal arrangement, the schedule should provide sufficient detail to identify the natural person behind the entity.
See the updated external guide:
