How to Complete a Tax File Number (TFN) Report for Closely Held Trusts in APS
The TFN Reporting module in Tax Manager allows trustees of closely held trusts to report beneficiary Tax File Numbers (TFNs) to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Trustees of a closely held trust are required to complete a TFN Report Form to provide beneficiary TFN details to the Commissioner.
For information on the ATO's TFN reporting requirements for closely held trusts, refer to the relevant ATO guidance.
Key Information
Standard Reporting has been enhanced to display trust details, including all beneficiary TFNs and their TFN reporting status.
The R - Reported status shown in Tax Manager may not always reflect the actual reporting status recorded by the ATO for the beneficiaries.
Multiple TT Forms can be lodged for the same client within the same income year.
To create an additional TT Form, add a new TT Form using the April to June quarter.
Tax Manager includes the TT - Tax File Number Form (TT Form) specifically for reporting beneficiary TFNs to the ATO.
Prerequisite for TFN Reporting
Before a beneficiary TFN can be reported, one of the following returns must exist in Tax Manager for the client:
Trust Return (Trust)
Trust Tax Return (TT)
Trust Estate Return (TE)
This requirement applies to both new and existing clients in Tax Manager.
Note: The TT Forms need to be created AFTER the TFN Reporting status has been updated. If this is not done, the TT Forms will need to be deleted and re-created.
Follow the steps below to complete the TT form:
Go to Tax Manager and select TFN Reporting.
The TFN Reporting Form is not income year specific. It includes all beneficiaries that have ever been created for or associated with the trust, regardless of the income year in which they were added.
For further information on where beneficiary details are sourced and how they are populated in the TFN Reporting Form, refer to the relevant beneficiary information section.
Specify the beneficiaries status.
You must specify a TFN Reporting Status for each beneficiary. To update the status, click Edit Mode and select the appropriate value from the TFN Reported drop-down list.
The available statuses are:R – Reported
Select R – Reported when the beneficiary's TFN information has already been reported to the ATO.
N – Not Reported
Select N – Not Reported when the beneficiary's TFN has not previously been reported to the ATO.
This status must be set manually on the TFN Reporting Form in Tax Manager for the relevant trust. Beneficiaries with a status of N – Not Reported will be included in the TT Form when it is prepared, as their TFNs still need to be reported.
Q – Not Required
Select Q – Not Required when the trustee determines that the beneficiary's TFN does not need to be reported to the ATO.
This status must also be set manually on the TFN Reporting Form in Tax Manager for the relevant trust.
U – Unknown
U – Unknown is the default status assigned when:
A beneficiary is added through Practice Management.
A beneficiary's status is reset to the system default.
The system is unable to determine or pre-populate an appropriate status.
📌Note: Beneficiaries with a TFN Reported status of U – Unknown may not be included in a TT Form. If you update a beneficiary's TFN Reported status, ensure the changes are saved and follow any relevant processing requirements before preparing or lodging the TT Form.
To support the TFN reporting process, Tax Manager automatically sets a beneficiary's TFN Reporting Status to R – Reported when all of the following conditions are met in the most recently lodged trust tax return:
The trust return has been lodged via ELS, or its status has been manually updated to Lodged.
The beneficiary has been allocated an Assessment Calculation Code of 30, 34, or 35.
The beneficiary has a Non-Primary Production (NPP) income amount greater than zero.
The beneficiary's details disclosed in the trust tax return include:
a valid TFN,
a valid postal address, and
a valid date of birth (for individual beneficiaries).
If all of the above conditions have been met and the beneficiary's TFN Reporting Status has not automatically updated to R – Reported, further investigation may be required.
4. Add the TT form.
The TT form can be added by clicking on the add return icon. A period dialogue screen will be available after the selection of the TT form.
Once the return has been created, open it and navigate to the Beneficiary Details schedule. Beneficiaries with a status of N – Not Reported will be automatically included as worksheets in the schedule.
📌Note: Beneficiaries are added after a TT Form has been created and their status is set to N – Not Reported, the TT Form must be deleted and re-added to refresh the beneficiary list and include them for reporting.
5. Complete the TT- Form.
Go to the Beneficiary Details schedule and review each beneficiary worksheet to ensure all disclosed information is accurate. Once the details have been verified, complete, validate, and lodge the return with the ATO.