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How R185(Trust Income) works: what it means for trustees and beneficiaries

Form R185(Trust Income) is the certificate trustees of an ongoing trust use to tell each beneficiary what income they received or became entitled to from the trust in a tax year, and how much tax has already been paid on it.

It splits into two genuinely different regimes on the same form: discretionary payments, grossed up at the trust rate, and non-discretionary income an interest-in-possession beneficiary is simply entitled to as it arises.

This walkthrough covers who the form is for and who it isn't, how the two income groups differ, the boxes that don't go where their heading suggests, and the non-resident-trust boxes that replaced the old settlement-benefit charge from April 2025.

✓ Official source checked 23 August 2026 · GOV.UK last revised this form 21 August 2026R185TRUST on GOV.UK
Free
United KingdomInformational, not legal or financial adviceOfficial source: GOV.UK
Official form · always current

This is the same official R185TRUST file HM Revenue & Customs publishes on GOV.UK — the link below fetches the current version live from GOV.UK the moment you click it, so it can never go out of date.

The button gives you Statement of income from trust — current tax year.

Current version: August 2026 · confirmed on GOV.UK 23 August 2026

This walkthrough takes R185(Trust Income) field by field, in plain English. The certificate itself never goes to HMRC; the hard part is the discretionary/non-discretionary split, and knowing which boxes actually feed SA107 and which quietly belong on SA106 or SA100 instead.

The thing most people get wrong
Settlor-interested trust income belongs on a different form entirely. Income arising to a settlor-interested trust — including income an interest-in-possession beneficiary receives that HMRC treats as the settlor's — must go on the separate form R185(Settlor), never on this one.

Getting the discretionary/non-discretionary split wrong matters too: boxes 1–2 carry a grossed-up trust-rate tax credit, boxes 3–5 carry ordinary basic/dividend-rate credits, and using the wrong box's tax credit hands the beneficiary the wrong figure for their own return.

And not every box feeds SA107 — boxes 6, 7 and 8 explicitly go elsewhere (the matching income-type page, SA106, and the main SA100), despite arriving on a form headed 'trust income'.
The form, in summary
Valoren
R185TRUST4 pages14 fields guided
With Valoren15 minutes
Without Valoren45 minutes
per beneficiary · once the trust accounts and the trust-rate tax-pool figures are known
Deadline
No fixed deadlineissued at each
distribution or year-end
Who Files
Trusteesof an ongoing trust
— not the estate's PRs
£
Fee
Freecertificate, not
an application
Filed with Beneficiaries
Draws from your Estate File
the records this form is built from
PersonalFinancial Accounts·Legal Instruments·Digital Access Map·Asset Inventory·Income & Outgoings·Civil Dossier·Policy Index·Medical Abstract·Property Folio·Succession Plan·Digital Legacy Registry·Business Interests & Directorships·Funeral & Committal Wishes·Dependent Care & Handoff·Personal Record·RegistryMaster Registry·Renewal Register·People, Authority & Contacts·Designated Places·Kinship & Succession Map·SecureAccess Controls·Recovery Routes·Custody & Contingency·EventsDeath & Estate Activation·Incapacity & Medical Proxy·Absence & Continuity Cover·Access Loss & Identity Recovery·Legal Dispute & Evidence Protocol·Theft & Asset Compromise·Property Damage & Incident Response·Relocation & Address Update Protocol·Separation & Custody Documentation·Business Interruption & Continuity·PersonalFinancial Accounts·Legal Instruments·Digital Access Map·Asset Inventory·Income & Outgoings·Civil Dossier·Policy Index·Medical Abstract·Property Folio·Succession Plan·Digital Legacy Registry·Business Interests & Directorships·Funeral & Committal Wishes·Dependent Care & Handoff·Personal Record·RegistryMaster Registry·Renewal Register·People, Authority & Contacts·Designated Places·Kinship & Succession Map·SecureAccess Controls·Recovery Routes·Custody & Contingency·EventsDeath & Estate Activation·Incapacity & Medical Proxy·Absence & Continuity Cover·Access Loss & Identity Recovery·Legal Dispute & Evidence Protocol·Theft & Asset Compromise·Property Damage & Incident Response·Relocation & Address Update Protocol·Separation & Custody Documentation·Business Interruption & Continuity·
Legal basisStatute

R185(Trust Income) is the certificate trustees of an ongoing trust give to each beneficiary who received or was entitled to income from the trust in a tax year — it is not sent to HMRC.

It carries two genuinely different tax regimes on one form. Boxes 1–2 cover discretionary payments, grossed up at the trust rate under ITA 2007 ss.493–498. Boxes 3–8 cover non-discretionary income an interest-in-possession beneficiary is simply entitled to as it arises, taxed by income type under ITTOIA 2005 rather than any trust-specific rule.

This is a different form from the sibling R185 (Estate Income), which personal representatives issue for income arising during the administration of a deceased's estate — and from R185(Settlor), the separate HMRC form that income arising to a settlor-interested trust must go on instead of this one.

Section by section

The form, section by section.

Before you start, you’ll need:
  • Who Files — Trustees of an ongoing trust — not the personal representatives of a deceased's estate under administration — complete this form for each beneficiary who received or was entitled to income from the trust in the tax year. Often this is a will trust the deceased's own will set up (a life-interest trust for a surviving spouse, a discretionary trust for grandchildren), run by professional or lay trustees who are frequently the same people who were executors of the estate, acting now in the separate capacity of trustee once administration has ended. The beneficiary then uses the form to complete their own SA107 ('Trusts etc' pages) or, for a repayment claim, form R40 — nobody files R185(Trust Income) itself with HMRC.
  • 4 pages · 14 fields guided
  • Draws from your Estate File — Financial Accounts, Legal Instruments
Section 1

Before you issue it — who this form is for, and who it isn't

R185(Trust Income) looks like a small form, but three things determine whether it's even the right one to reach for.

Trustees, not personal representatives

This form is for the trustees of an ongoing trust — a trust that is still running, not an estate still being administered.

A lay trustee is very often the same person who was an executor of the estate that created the trust — a life-interest trust for a surviving spouse set up by the will is a common example — but once administration ends and assets move into the trust, they're acting in a different capacity, and the estate's own R185 (Estate Income) is no longer the right form.

The form is permissive, not mandatory

HMRC's own wording says 'Trustees may use this form' — no statute requires trustees to issue exactly this document. What is required is that the beneficiary has the figures they need for their own return; this form is simply HMRC's standard way of giving them that.

It never goes to HMRC

The form is explicit: 'Do not send us this R185(Trust Income) unless we ask you to.'

It passes directly from trustee to beneficiary. The beneficiary keeps it as their own record — evidence for their Self Assessment return or an R40 claim, not a filing.

R185(Trust Income) looks like a small form, but three things determine whether it's even the right one to reach for.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · R185TRUST
Section 2

Discretionary income payments — boxes 1 and 2

The first of the form's two income groups, and the one where getting the settlor question wrong sends the tax charge to the wrong person.

Box 1 — payments from a non-settlor-interested trust

Net payments the beneficiary received from a UK resident trust that isn't settlor-interested, after tax was taken off, plus the tax credit at the trust rate on that payment — two linked figures.

This is the box that carries the trust-rate grossing-up mechanism under ITA 2007 ss.493–498: the trust has already paid tax at the trust rate on the underlying income, and the tax credit represents that.

Box 2 — payments from a settlor-interested trust

Total payments from a settlor-interested trust to a beneficiary who is NOT the settlor — the actual amount paid, not grossed up.

Payments to the settlor themselves are excluded entirely; they aren't taxable on the settlor and don't belong on this form at all.

The settlor-interested trap

Income arising to a settlor-interested trust — including income an interest-in-possession beneficiary receives that HMRC treats as the settlor's for tax purposes — must be reported on the separate form R185(Settlor), never here.

Discretionary payments to the settlor's own minor children also go on R185(Settlor), even though the child isn't the settlor. Everything else non-settlor stays on this form.

The first of the form's two income groups, and the one where getting the settlor question wrong sends the tax charge to the wrong person.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · R185TRUST
Section 3

Non-discretionary income entitlement — boxes 3 to 8

The second income group: what an interest-in-possession beneficiary is simply entitled to as it arises, taxed by income type rather than under any trust-specific rule.

Four of these six boxes have a genuine trap in where the figure ends up on the beneficiary's own return.

Box 3 — non-savings income

Net non-savings income taxed at basic rate after tax taken off — rental income is the common example — plus the tax paid.

If box 3 includes £1,000 or less of gross trading or UK property income, the beneficiary can elect to claim the trading/property micro-allowance on their own SA100 instead of deducting expenses — but that needs four extra figures from the trustees (the net amount after tax, the tax amount, the gross income, and the beneficiary's share of allowable expenses).

Box 4 — savings income

Net savings income taxed at basic rate after tax taken off — bank or building society interest — plus the tax already paid, which the beneficiary gets credit for.

The Personal Savings Allowance (up to £1,000, from 6 April 2016) sits on top of this at the beneficiary's own return, not on the form itself.

Box 5 — dividend income

Net income taxed at the dividend rate after tax taken off — UK company dividends — plus the tax paid.

The Dividend Allowance the beneficiary can set against it has fallen sharply: £2,000, down to £1,000 from 2023, down again to £500 from 6 April 2024.

Box 6 — untaxed income doesn't go on SA107

Untaxed income, with the trustees required to specify the type on a separate sheet.

This is the first of three boxes that break the pattern: box 6 goes on whichever tax-return page matches the underlying income type — rent to SA105, for example — never on the SA107 'Trusts etc' pages, despite arriving on a form headed 'trust income'.

Box 7 — foreign income goes on SA106

Three separate figures: the gross amount before any UK, foreign, or special withholding tax; the foreign tax paid; and the UK tax paid on that foreign income. Each maps to a specific column on the beneficiary's SA106.

If UK-resident, the beneficiary can still claim the property allowance against this income where it applies — but it goes on SA106, not SA107.

Box 8 — stock or scrip dividends go on the main SA100

Stock or scrip dividends paid, plus the notional tax on that amount.

These go in the scrip-dividend boxes of the main SA100, not the SA107 supplement — the last of the three boxes that don't follow the form's own heading.

The second income group: what an interest-in-possession beneficiary is simply entitled to as it arises, taxed by income type rather than under any trust-specific rule.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · R185TRUST
Section 4

Residential property, and the boxes that changed for 2025-26

A working-sheet restriction on property finance costs, and a genuine reform: the old non-resident-trust box was retired from 6 April 2025 and replaced with three new ones.

Using an out-of-date form or advice after that date misreports non-resident-trust benefits.

Box 25 — residential finance-cost restriction

For let residential property, no deduction for mortgage or finance costs has been allowed since 6 April 2020 — instead, a tax reduction is claimed via a working sheet in the SA107 notes.

That reduction isn't available at all if the beneficiary instead claims the property allowance.

Box 25.1 — unused finance costs brought forward

Residential finance costs from earlier years that weren't fully used then carry forward and are reported here.

Box 42 — retired from 6 April 2025

The settlement benefit charge, for non-resident trusts, close family members of the settlor, or onward-gift recipients, applied through box 42 only up to 5 April 2025.

Boxes 62–64 — the new 'Other overseas income and gains' section

From the 2025-26 tax year, the equivalent reporting moved to three new boxes, part of the reform to non-resident trust and settlement taxation (Transitional Trust Income, Protected Foreign Source Income, and the Onward Gifts Rules): box 62 for benefits matched to the settlor, box 63 for the same matched to a close family member of the settlor, and box 64 for benefits chargeable under the Onward Gifts Rules.

A working-sheet restriction on property finance costs, and a genuine reform: the old non-resident-trust box was retired from 6 April 2025 and replaced with three new ones.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · R185TRUST
Section 5

The declaration, and what the beneficiary does with it

The one structural feature that sets this form apart from its estate-income sibling, and where the figures actually go once the trustee hands them over.

The declaration — a real difference from R185 (Estate Income)

The trustee signs and dates a declaration confirming 'the information given on this form is correct.'

The sibling R185 (Estate Income) form has no equivalent signature section — this one does, and it's a genuine structural difference worth checking for, not a decorative addition.

The R40 cross-reference

A beneficiary claiming a repayment rather than filing SA107 copies boxes 1–8 across to specific boxes on their own R40 instead — the gov.uk notes carry a full box-by-box table for this. Check the current notes for the exact R40 box numbers rather than relying on memory; HMRC has reissued this form more than once in 2026.

It stays with the beneficiary

Once handed over, the certificate is the beneficiary's own record. It supports their Self Assessment return or their R40 claim — it is never something the trustee files anywhere else.

The one structural feature that sets this form apart from its estate-income sibling, and where the figures actually go once the trustee hands them over.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) · R185TRUST

Many people file R185TRUST themselves — that is what this walkthrough is for. If the situation behind it has stopped being simple — beyond what a careful person can safely do alone — Signum, Valoren’s own specialist desk, can take it on, and we say so plainly: it starts with a free intake, and if you do not need us, we will tell you. Prefer an independent adviser? STEP and the Chartered Institute of Taxation both keep public member directories, and neither pays Valoren a referral fee.

FAQ

R185TRUST questions, answered.

R185(Trust Income) is the certificate trustees of an ongoing trust give each beneficiary who received or was entitled to income from the trust in a tax year.

It shows the amount, the type of income, and how much tax has already been paid on it — so the beneficiary can complete their own tax return.
No. The form itself says plainly: do not send it to HMRC unless HMRC specifically asks for it.

It passes directly from trustee to beneficiary, and the beneficiary keeps it as their own evidence for their Self Assessment return or an R40 claim.
R185 (Estate Income) is issued by executors or administrators strictly for income that arose during the administration of a deceased person's estate.

R185(Trust Income) is for an ongoing trust — often one the deceased's own will created, once administration has finished and assets have moved into it. They report income under different statutory regimes and use different boxes.
Income arising to a settlor-interested trust — including income an interest-in-possession beneficiary receives that HMRC treats as belonging to the settlor for tax purposes — must be reported on the separate form R185(Settlor), never on this one.

Discretionary payments actually made to the settlor aren't taxable on the settlor and go on neither form; discretionary payments to the settlor's own minor children go on R185(Settlor) too, even though they're not the settlor. Discretionary payments to any other, non-settlor beneficiary go on this form, at box 2.
No. Boxes 1–5 do. Box 6 (untaxed income) goes on whichever tax-return page matches the underlying income type instead. Box 7 (foreign income) goes on SA106, not SA107. Box 8 (stock or scrip dividends) goes in the scrip-dividend boxes of the main SA100.

Copying everything straight onto SA107 misreports it.
Neither the form nor the gov.uk page states a fixed deadline — it's a certificate, not a return, and trustees issue it whenever they make a payment or a beneficiary becomes entitled to income.

The real time pressure sits with the beneficiary: they need the figures before their own Self Assessment deadline, or before submitting an R40 repayment claim.

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Where this fits

R185TRUST is one form. The file behind it is the rest.

Issuing R185(Trust Income) correctly starts with knowing which of the trust's payments were discretionary and which the beneficiary was simply entitled to — the trust deed settles that split. Financial Accounts holds the trust's income and tax-pool figures; Legal Instruments holds the trust deed itself.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)14 fieldsNo fee — a certificate, not an application15 minutes with Valoren
Where this fits

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