In the 2023 income tax year the number of trusts and estates filing IR6 returns totalled 232,400, a decrease of -5.1% since 2022.
![This graph has one line that shows the number of trusts and estates that filed a tax return by income tax year. On the vertical axis is the total number of trusts and estates. The horizontal axis shows tax years from 2001 to 2022. The number of trusts and estates increased from 164,900 in the 2001 tax year to 252,200 in the 2010 tax year, an increase of 53%. Since 2010, the number of trusts and estates has increased more slowly to reach 262,439 in the 2017 tax year. Since 2017, the number of trusts and estates has generally declined to 237,226 in the 2022 tax year with the sharpest decline in that final 2022 year.]](/-/media/project/ir/home/graphics/about-us/tax-statistics/revenue-refunds/income-of-trusts-ir6-return/number-of-trusts-and-estates-resize.jpg?modified=20241105225451)
The number of trusts and estates 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 exceeded the trustee tax rate.
In April 2001, the personal income tax scale changed with the introduction of a top personal tax rate of 39% for incomes over $60,000. From 1 October 2008 the threshold for the top personal tax rate was changed to apply to incomes over $70,000. The top personal tax rate reduced to 38% for income over $70,000 from April 2009 to September 2010 and reduced to 33% from October 2010. During this time the trustee income tax rate was unchanged at 33%.
Between 2010 and 2017, the number of trusts and estates filing tax returns increased more slowly from 252,200 in the 2010 tax year to 263,700 in the 2017 tax year, a growth of 5%. Since 2017 the number of trusts and estates filing tax returns has generally declined. In the 2023 tax year, the number of trusts and estates filing tax returns fell -5.1% on the preceding year to 232,200. Part of this decline reflects an increase in the threshold for trusts to qualify as inactive and not be required to file tax returns and by Inland Revenue.