Trust and Estate Administration, Ethics and Communication
Returns, accounts, payment, penalties, wills, intestacy, deeds of variation and ethical advice.
How to study the ATT Qualification
Use Finance Act 2025 for the 2026 tax papers, complete the three foundational CBEs early, apply professional ethics throughout and concentrate option practice on the one paper you will enter.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Trust and estate tax work requires coordinated income tax, CGT and IHT administration.
Exam cue: Map each tax, responsible person, return, payment and claim date.
Concept 2
Legal ownership, wills, intestacy and variations determine who holds and receives property.
Exam cue: Confirm legal entitlement before advising on tax treatment.
Concept 3
Practitioners must manage conflicts, confidentiality, client identity and tax-filing accuracy.
Exam cue: Identify ethical threats among settlor, trustees, executors and beneficiaries.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Assuming the beneficiary is the practitioner’s only client.
Guardrail: Do not use an obsolete tax rate, assume a relief, ignore legal form, submit unsupported information or omit the relevant deadline and ethical response.
Giving tax advice without confirming the will or trust terms.
Guardrail: Do not use an obsolete tax rate, assume a relief, ignore legal form, submit unsupported information or omit the relevant deadline and ethical response.
Missing an administration or claim deadline.
Guardrail: Do not use an obsolete tax rate, assume a relief, ignore legal form, submit unsupported information or omit the relevant deadline and ethical response.
Memory anchors
Three-tax map
Coordinate income tax, CGT and IHT by person and event.
Authority
Confirm executor, trustee or beneficiary authority before acting.
Variation
Check legal form, timing and tax statements for a post-death variation.
Conflict
Identify clients and interests before accepting instructions.
Clear advice
State tax, amount, deadline, evidence and responsible person.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
Executors want to distribute the estate before reserving for tax and creditors. What should the adviser recommend?
One executor withholds asset details from co-executors. What is the appropriate response?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
What is Pass Harbor?
Completely free exam prep for 247 UK exams.
- Practice questions
- Flashcards
- Study guides
- Mock exams
- No registration
- No paywall
- Start instantly
“No more expensive exam prep. Quality study tools should be accessible to everyone.”