The SA900 Trust and Estate Tax Return
Written and reviewed by the Trust Tax Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 22 August 2026.
- What is due
- File the SA900 Trust and Estate Tax Return and pay the tax
- By when
- 31 January after the end of the tax year
- If it is missed
- An automatic penalty applies from the day after the deadline
The SA900 is the annual return for trusts and for estates in administration. It is not the same form as a personal tax return and it does not behave like one: the rates are different, the tax-free amount is different, and the person signing it is personally responsible for what it says.
This is who has to file one, when, and how the tax is actually worked out.
Who Has to File
Trustees of a UK trust with taxable income or gains file an SA900 for each tax year. Personal representatives file one for a deceased person's estate where the estate receives taxable income or makes disposals during the administration period, which runs from the date of death until the assets are distributed and the estate is wound up.
The form itself and its supplementary pages are published by HMRC. Filing and payment are both due by 31 January after the end of the tax year, and a late return attracts an automatic penalty regardless of whether any tax was owed.
The Rates Are Not the Personal Rates
This is where the SA900 diverges most sharply from a personal return, and where trustees who prepare their own get caught.
For an accumulation or discretionary trust, income above the tax-free amount is taxed at 45% on non-dividend income and 39.35% on dividend income. Those are the top rates from the first pound above the band, with no personal allowance and no progression.
For an interest in possession trust the rates are much lower: 20% on other income, and 10.75% on dividend income. That dividend figure changed on 5 April 2026, up from 8.75%, and a good deal of published guidance still shows the old number. If you are checking your position against something you read last year, check the date on it.
The Standard Rate Band and Its Trap
Most trusts pay no income tax on income up to a tax-free amount, normally £500. Income inside that band is taxed at 20% on other income and 10.75% on dividends rather than at the trust rates, which is why the band is worth more than its size suggests.
The trap is that the band is divided, not repeated. Where the same settlor created several trusts, the amount is split between them, and once there are five or more trusts the band for each one drops to £100. Families who set up a trust per grandchild routinely discover this at the wrong moment. The full rate position is set out in HMRC's guidance on trusts and income tax.
What We Do
Prepare and file the SA900, work out the tax at the right rates for the kind of trust it actually is, and produce the R185 certificates beneficiaries need for their own returns. Where the trust is not yet on the register we deal with registration first, because the return depends on it.
Where a trust is in the relevant property regime we track the ten-year anniversary alongside the annual return, so the inheritance tax side does not go unnoticed between filings. Fees and scope are on the engagement page.
Practitioner commentary on trust filing sits with the ICAEW Tax Faculty, which is a reasonable place to check whether anything has moved since a page was written.