Ownership of private shares under a trust

Hi,

Firstly I apologize for a similar post on investchat but I didn't get any responses so I'm trying here instead.

I currently own a private company under my own name. I wish to transfer the ownership to my family trust that I only recently setup. I'm getting confused on what name I put as the new owner in my share register. Having read some other threads it seems like I should be putting the name of the corporate trustee as the new owner. Is this correct? How does anyone work out whether it is owned by the corporate trustee or the trust?

Regards,
kefa

 

We would do:
Corporate Trustee Pty Ltd
<A/c Trust Name>
In the company register.

As to ASIC - just the corporate trustee name - but you also need to advise that ownership is not beneficially held.

 

Thanks for that - that helps. What does A/c stand for?

 

Account Designation.

Is the private company a small business? If so there's probably exempt stamp duty / CGT on transfer of shares, too.

 

Sounds like you own the shares of a private company and you wish to transfer these shares to a 'trust'.

A trust is not a legal entity so any shares would need to be owned by the trustee. Is there a company as trustee? If so the shares would need to be transferred from you to the company that is acting as trustee. The and on the asic forms indicate that the shares are not beneficially held (only legally) by the trustee.

You should consider the legal consequences of how the shares are transferred as this will have asset protection consequences. Probably should be sold under written contract at market value with money changing hands.

 

Oh and seek legal advice.