Does your sports club hold any property “in trust”?

Club secretaries will recently have received an email from British Orienteering to outline new anti-money laundering leglisation which may impact clubs. Our partners at Harper MacLeod have put together a helpful guide and further details. We urge all clubs to read and consider if this applies to them because action in the form of registration may be required by 1st September.

HMRC has introduced a trust registration system following a change in anti-money laundering legislation. Following new EU Anti-Money Laundering regulations and as part of increasing demands globally for transparency, most UK trusts and some foreign trusts are required to maintain details of their beneficial owners, including trustees.

Most sports clubs are unincorporated organisations and so these changes will be unlikely to affect those. However, certain clubs may include a provision within their constitution that provides for any property of the club to be held “in trust” by certain individuals or “property trustees”. Any sports clubs holding property “in trust” will need to register with HMRC via the Trust Registration Service (TRS)
and the deadline for doing this is 1 September 2022. This new rule applies whether or not the club pays tax.