People are increasingly being advised by their accountants to undertake new business, convert existing businesses and undertake new transactions through trusts. These can be fixed trusts, of which the unit trust is the most common version, discretionary trusts, or hybrid trusts.

However, there are a number of common trust transactions which have complexities surrounding stamp duty liability, and without careful planning you may end up paying far more stamp duty than necessary.

Common categories of trust transactions with perennial stamp duty problems are:

- the introduction of a trust into a transaction - either before or after the contract has been entered into
- contractual declarations of trust and purchases of land on behalf of someone else
- amending trust deeds and deeds of settlement to add or remove beneficiaries.

If you are involved in a trust and are considering any transactions of this nature, make sure you consult your solicitor about the ramifications for stamp duty liability.

Reproduced from In Touch With The Law, published by the Law Society of NSW