On 18 December 2024, as part of the 2024–25 Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic OutlookExternal Link, the Government announced it will support the modernisation of income tax reporting systems to reduce compliance costs on an ongoing basis for trustees, beneficiaries and tax agents, making lodgement easier and enabling the vast majority of trust tax returns to be lodged electronically. The improvements will also enable prefill of trust income for beneficiaries, in the same way salary and wages, bank interest and other types of income are currently prefilled.
Prefill capability will be enhanced by amending the law to require trustees to report the tax file numbers of beneficiaries on the trust income tax return’s statement of distribution when they have an entitlement. This will replace the need for trustees to separately notify the ATO of beneficiary TFNs. This amendment will commence on the first day of the next quarter after Royal Assent.
This measure is not yet law.