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  • vas-maleli

    Member
    April 27, 2025 at 12:46 pm

    Firstly, don’t use the term “private” Trust – Whatever entity you are dealing with, just call it a Trust, or the name, such as My Investment Trust, and if asked for a Tax File Number or ABN then you can say it’s not registered. Banks are in the public jurisdiction so not much you can do, the bank account will have YOUR NAME ATF MY INVESTMENT TRUST. I have Trust account with Westpac, CBA and Bendigo, all opened easily without ABN or TFN and account name in ALL CAPS. Bendigo and Westpac sent follow-up letters advising they would withhold 48.5% of interest earned but the business accounts earn no interest, although I did later give them a TFN (actually my own personal TFN) because I set up a Term Deposit account. Someone suggested let them take the 49% and keep no link to ATO since there’s no TFN. I haven’t bought property via the Trust yet… I know 2 friends bought property in the name of the Trust on the contract but the conveyancer and Titles office / Land Data / PEXA only put the NAME (legal owner) on the Certificate of Title, without “ATF TRUST NAME” despite having big arguments with the conveyancer… I asked my solicitor and they said it’s still registered as YOUR NAME ATF TRUST with other government entities such as SRO, Council, etc.