In the 2025 tax year, the number of trusts and estates filing IR6 returns totalled 233,000, a decrease of 3.4% on 2024 tax year and showing a continued downward trend since 2021.
The number of trusts and estates filing an IR6 return increased from 164,900 trusts and estates in the 2001 tax year to 252,200 in the 2010 tax year, an increase of 53%. Fast growth in the number of trusts and estates between 2001 and 2010 coincided with periods where the top personal tax rate of 39% for incomes over $60,000 exceeded the trustee tax rate at 33%.
The 39% personal rate was removed from October 2010 and between 2010 and 2017, the number of trusts and estates filing tax returns increased more slowly, rising from 252,200 in the 2010 tax year to 263,700 in the 2017 tax year, a 7-year growth of 5%. Since 2017 the number of trusts and estates filing tax returns has generally declined, and there has been little impact on the total volume of trusts since the 2021 reintroduction of a 39% personal tax rate for personal incomes exceeding $180,000. Part of the volume decline reflects an increase in the threshold for trusts to qualify as inactive and not be required to file tax returns to Inland Revenue. There has also been regulatory reform which may have had an impact.
In the 2025 tax year, the number of trusts and estates filing tax returns fell 3.4% on the prior year to 233,000, continuing the downward trend since 2017. The trustee tax rate for trustees earning more than $10,000 in trustee income matches the top personal tax rate from 2025 onwards.