中文

家庭财富保护计划中使用全权信托有关的实务问题

2020-11-04

婚姻家事财富管理家庭财富保护计划中使用全权信托有关的实务问题

作者文康律师事务所

作者：文康律师事务所

引言

文康君益诚律师联盟处理过诸多涉及澳大利亚的业务，在此基础上联盟成立了澳洲业务团队，团队成员包括多位能以英语为熟练工作语言的中国律师以及澳大利亚注册律师，其中王欲弘律师在中澳法律、投资、贸易、移民等业务领域深耕多年。团队国际法律顾问祝福律师拥有澳洲律师牌照近十年，作为在澳大利亚长大的华人，熟悉中澳两国文化，处理了大量中澳跨境法律事务，经验丰富。

澳洲业务团队可为文康君益诚联盟客户提供与中国-澳大利亚有关的投资、贸易、移民、跨国婚姻、诉讼等全方位、一站式的商业和法律服务。

有关家庭信托的问题

Issues relating to Family Trusts

受益人

信托必须有明确的受益人。全权信托将有一般类别的全权信托受益人。

通常，全权信托指定的特定受益人群体为 “首要”、“第二”和“第三”受益人。

（a）通常来说，首要受益人将是信托的初始控制人。

（b）第二受益人将通常是首要受益人的子女及其他家庭成员。

（c）第三受益人通常是相关的公司、信托、慈善组织等。

受托人对每年如何分配信托的收入和资本有绝对的决定权。因此，受托人可以将一年的全部或部分收入和资本分配给首要受益人、第二受益人或第三受益人。

但是，如果没有决定如何分配收益，默认受益人（通常是首要受益人）将平均分配收益。

Beneficiaries

A trust must have identifiable beneficiaries. A discretionary trust will have a general class of discretionary beneficiaries.

It is usual to designate particular groupings of beneficiaries of discretionary trusts as ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary’ beneficiaries.

(a) Generally, the primary beneficiaries will be the parties who are the initial controllers of the trust.

(b) The secondary beneficiaries will usually be the children and other family members of the primary beneficiaries.

The trustee has an absolute discretion as to how income and capital of the trust is distributed on a year to year basis. Therefore, the trustee can distribute the whole or part of the income for a year and capital to any one of the primary, secondary or tertiary beneficiaries.

However, if there is no decision made as to how the income is to be distributed, the default beneficiaries (usually the primary beneficiaries) will share in the income equally.

设立人

设立人需要支付10澳元初始结算金。此人需要签署信托契约，被称为“设立人”。

出于税收原因，设立人应该是与设立信托的当事人或其家庭完全无关的人。因此，设立人通常是当事人的朋友，而不是其亲属或其会计师或律师。

Settlor

The settlor is someone needs to pay the initial settlement sum of $10. This person is required to sign the trust deed and is called the ‘settlor’.

For tax reasons, the settlor should be a person who is totally unconnected with the parties setting up the trust or their family. For this reason, the settlor will usually be a friend who is not a relative or the accountant or lawyer for the parties.

委托人/委任人

大多数全权信托契约都规定一个被称为“委托人”或“委任人”的人，其有权变更受托人。

由于具有变更受托人的权力，委托人通常对信托资产具有最终控制权。

通常，委托人还将拥有额外的“权力”，例如有权否定受托人的某些行为（受托人可能需要事先向委托人发出特定目的行为的通知）。

这可能会延伸至如下的重要问题：

• 修改信托契约；

• 变更信托的到期日（或终止日期）；

• 变更信托受益人。

某些保护性权力也可授予委托人，例如，在受托人行使其关于资本指定、指定到期日、修改信托契约、增加或排除受益人的权力之前，可能需要获得委托人的事先同意。

或者，可以授予委托人对受托人决定的否决权。

Appointor/Principal

Most discretionary trust deeds provide for a person known as the ‘appointor’ or ‘principal’ to have the power to change the trustee.

The appointor generally has the ultimate control over the trust assets because of the power to change the trustee.

More often than not, the appointor will also have additional “powers”, such as the ability to veto certain actions by the trustee (who may be required to provide prior notice of certain intended actions to the appointor).

This may extend to important issues such as:

• Amending the trust deed;

• Changing the vesting date (or end date) of the trust; and

• Changing the beneficiaries of the trust.

Certain protective powers may also be conferred on the appointor, such as the appointor’s prior consent may be required before the trustee exercises its powers on appointments of capital, appointing a vesting date, amending the trust deed or to add or exclude beneficiaries.

Alternatively, the appointor may be given a power of veto over the decisions of the trustee.

监护人

上述替代方案是，可以在信托契约中设立多个角色（例如：监护人，委任人，保护人），并赋予他们其中一项或多项权力，而不是将所有权力都赋予委托人。因此，这将信托契约内的各种控制和保护机制分开，使任何一个人都不能被视为“控制”（信托）。

信托基金分配的各种限制可能被强加于担任这些角色的人之上，以进一步证明其没有“控制”的论点。

然而，对于小型家庭单位来说，不建议为了信托目的用此方法。

Guardian

An alternative to the above is that a number of roles (e.g. Guardian, Principal, Protector) may be created within the trust deed with any one or more of these powers rather than providing all of the powers to the appointor. This therefore separates the various controlling and protective mechanisms within the trust deed so that no one person may be seen as in “control”.

Various restrictions on distributions from the trust fund may also be imposed upon the persons that take these roles to further enforce the argument that a person does not have “control”.

However, this is not recommended for the purposes of this trust due to the small family unit.

委托人继承

对于家庭信托的信托契约，至少应该规定一项继承条款，约定如果委托人死亡，其个人代表或遗嘱执行人将接替他或她担任信托的委托人。

更好的办法是将这种自动继承条款与委托人在信托开始时或信托存续期间具体指定其继承人的能力结合起来。在这种情况下，被指定人死亡后，指定人将自动成为信托的委托人，没有时间滞后。

Appointor Succession

At the very least the trust deed for a family trust should provide a succession provision stating that in the event that the appointor dies, his personal representatives or executors will step into his or her shoes as appointor of the trust.

A better approach is to combine this automatic succession provision with the ability for the appointor to nominate their successor specifically, either at the commencement of the trust, or during the lifetime of the trust. In this case the nominee would automatically become appointor of the trust upon the death of the nominator without a time lag.

在信托存续期间内变更委托人的能力

一份完善的家庭信托契约也将使委托人有能力辞去他们的职务并指定一个接替他们的人。这在关系破裂时尤其重要，因为一方可能希望在没有另一方参与的情况下使信托存续。

契约亦应规定，若委托人丧失行为能力、破产及在“家庭破裂期间”，委托人的职位会被撤销。如果其中一种情况只是暂时的，角色只会在该情况存在时被撤销，而一旦该情况结束，他们可以恢复该职位。

The ability to change the Appointor during the lifetime of the Trust

A well drafted family trust deed will also enable the appointor to resign their position and appoint a replacement in their stead. This is particularly important for relationship breakdowns where one party may wish to continue the trust without the involvement of the other.

The deed should also provide that the appointor’s position is vacated in the event of incapacity, bankruptcy and during a “family breakdown period”. Where one of these situations is only temporary the role is only vacated whilst that circumstance exists and they may resume that position once it has ended.

破产

就联邦法院在破产程序中对信托的影响而言，客户需要了解Robert French法官在Richstar Enterprises Pty Ltd诉Carey (No . 6) [2006] FCA 814案中作出的判决。

French法官描述了三种情况，在这种情况下，他表示愿意考虑扩大接管人的命令，以涵盖信托中的“预期利益”，以便根据《2001年公司法》（Cth）第9节的财产定义而将其视为财产，因此，接管人可以适用。它们是：

1. 被告是受益人、公司受托人的董事和秘书，且信托赋予分配给目标受益人自由裁量权，而非赋予其他受益人之信托。

2. 被告为受托人及受益人，且被告有权将收益或资本分配予目标受益人之信托。

3. 被告为受益人，并有权罢免或任命受托人之信托。

在真正有风险的情况中，可能采取的措施有：

1. 风险承担者作为信托的直接受益人可能被排除。通过配偶或子女的受益人条款涉及的另一项全权信托可能会获得间接利益。

2. 风险承担者可能只是公司受托人中众多董事之一，因此需要真正共同做出决定。

3. 风险承担者不是委托人，或者，如果委托人是此类人中的一员，并且没有决定性投票。休假规定也可能是适当的。

Bankruptcy

In terms of the Federal Court’s reach on a trust in bankruptcy proceedings, clients need to be aware of the decision of Justice Robert French in the matter of Richstar Enterprises Pty Ltd v Carey (No 6) [2006] FCA 814.

French J described three scenarios where he stated he would be willing to consider extending the receivers orders to cover “expectant interests” in a trust such that it would be considered property for the purposes of the definition of property in section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), and therefore, would be available to the receivers.

These were:

1. A trust where the defendant is a beneficiary and a director and secretary of the corporate trustee and the trust confers a discretion to distribute to targeted beneficiaries to the exclusion of others.

2. A trust where the defendant is a trustee and beneficiary where the defendant has a discretion to distribute income or capital to a targeted beneficiary.

3. A trust where the defendant is a beneficiary and has the power to remove or appoint trustees.

In truly risky environments, actions which might be taken are:

1. The risk exposed person might be excluded as a direct beneficiary of the trust. An indirect benefit might be obtained through another discretionary trust brought into the beneficiary’s clause through the spouse or children.

2. the risk exposed person might be only one of a number of directors of the corporate trustee and the decisions need genuinely to be made jointly

3. the risk exposed person would not be the appointor or, if an appointor, is one of a number of such persons and does not have a casting vote. A vacation of office provision may also be appropriate.

指定的外国受益人

如果信托中有指定的或明确约定的受益人是外国人，首席专员通常会要求将这些受益人作为受益人从信托中移除。

如果指定的外国受益人没有被移除，受托人通常要承担外国附加费。

Named Foreign Beneficiary

Should the trust contain named or specified beneficiaries that are foreign persons, the Chief Commissioner will usually require that such beneficiaries are removed from the trust as beneficiaries.

If the named foreign beneficiaries are not removed, the trustee will generally be liable for foreign surcharges.

非居民受益人规则

一般而言，信托的净收益是根据第97节向信托受益人征税的。

然而，第98节在某些情况下适用于就受益人向受托人征税，包括在收益年度结束时受益人是非居民的情况。受托人对非居民受益人征税，以协助征收澳大利亚相关收入的税收。

Rules for non-resident beneficiaries

Generally, the net income of a trust is taxed to beneficiaries of the trust under section 97.

However, section 98 applies in certain cases to tax a trustee in relation to a beneficiary, including where a beneficiary is a non-resident at the end of an income year. Trustees are taxed in relation to non-resident beneficiaries to assist in the collection of Australian tax on relevant income.

第98节第（3）分节的实施

第98节第（3）分节规定，受托人有义务就非居民个人受益人在信托净收入中所占的份额或非居民公司受益人在信托净收入中所占的份额缴纳税款。

Operation of subsections 98(3)

Subsection 98(3) provides that a trustee is liable to pay tax on a non-resident individual beneficiaryundefineds share of the net income of the trust or a non-resident company beneficiaryundefineds share of the net income of the trust.

与公司受托人有关的问题

Issues relating to Corporate trustee

在法律上，信托是一种关系或安排，但与公司不同，信托不是独立的法律实体。

受托人是财产的所有者，负责管理信托税务，并以信托受托人的身份订立合同的法律实体。信托的受托人可以是一个或多个个人，或一个公司。

然而，出于税收目的，信托被视为一个独立的实体。

In legal terms, a trust is a relationship or arrangement but, unlike companies, trusts are not separate legal entities.

The trustee is the legal entity who owns the assets, is responsible for managing the trust’s tax affairs, and enters into contracts in its capacity as trustee of the trust. A trustee of a trust can be either one or more individuals, or a company.

However, trusts are treated as a separate entity for taxation purposes.

个人受托人

个人受托人是被任命为信托受托人的自然人。

设有个人受托人的缺点是:

• 个人受托人可能对信托的任何法律问题承担个人责任，

• 由于个人是一个独立的法律实体，其可以被起诉、破产或离婚。

• 继任计划中可能出现的问题。

然而，个人受托人管理起来更简单，成本也更低。

Individual trustees

An individual trustee is a natural person who is appointed the trustee of the trust.

Disadvantages of having an individual trustee are:

• The individual trustee may be held personally liable for any legal issues with the trust,

• As the individual is a separate legal entity, the individual is able to be sued, become bankrupt, or get divorced.

• Possible issues with succession planning.

However, an individual trustee is simpler to administer and with lower costs.

公司受托人

公司受托人是被任命为信托受托人的公司。该公司通常只有极少的资产，并且通常仅作为信托的受托人而设立。

公司受托人可以有一个或多个董事和一个或多个股东。

设有公司受托人的好处是：

• 有限责任，因为公司是独立于股东的独立法人实体。公司受托人的董事通常不对信托资产的任何不足承担个人责任。

• 继任计划方面的问题更少。

• 作为公司受托人，增加或罢免董事更为容易；只需任命新董事到受托公司，并通知ASIC。

Corporate trustees

A corporate trustee is a company who is appointed the trustee of the trust. The company typically has minimal assets and would usually be set up for the sole purpose of acting as the trustee of a trust.

Corporate trustees can have one or more directors and one or more shareholders.

Some advantages of having a corporate trustee are:

• Limited liability as the company is a separate legal entity from the shareholders. The director(s) of the trustee company would not ordinarily be personally liable for any shortfall in the assets of the trust.

• Fewer issues with succession planning.

• As a corporate trustee, it is easier to add or remove directors; the new director just needs to be appointed to the trustee company and ASIC notified.

个人住所

简要地说，为了确定个人的住所，ITAA 36第6节为澳大利亚税收目的规定了“居民”的定义。

如果符合以下条件，则出于税收目的，个人将被视为澳大利亚居民：

1. 在该条款的一般含义下为居民；

2. 在澳大利亚停留183天或以上；

3. 居住在澳大利亚（除非他们的“常住地”在澳大利亚境外）；或

4. 是某些政府退休金计划中定义的合格雇员。

Individual residence

Briefly, to determine the residence of an individual, s 6 of the ITAA 36 provides a definition of ‘resident’ for Australian tax purposes.

An individual will be treated as a resident of Australia for taxation purposes if they:

1. are a resident under the ordinary meaning of the term;

2. spend 183 or more days in Australia;

3. are domiciled in Australia (unless their ‘usual place of abode’ is outside of Australia); or

4. are an eligible employee as defined in certain Government superannuation schemes.

公司住所

信托财产的公司住所将由外国公司或居民企业受托人建立，该受托人在收入年度的任何时间通过在该年度任何时间在澳大利亚行使中央管理和控制的方式常住澳大利亚。

如果确定某信托财产为居民信托财产，则可能需要考虑各种其他税法规定以及任何与《双重征税协定》相关的规定，以确定该信托财产的净收入和目前所约定的受益人的责任或自信托财产收到的款项。此外，还需要考虑CGT事件I1和I2（即当信托财产出于CGT目的而成为和不再是居民信托时）以及受托人产生的任何预提义务。

即使受托人是在澳大利亚税法之外被视为外国居民且收入来源于国外的外国注册公司，外国居民受益人也可能有澳大利亚的纳税义务和负债。

Corporate residence

Corporate residence of a trust estate will be established by a foreign corporate or resident corporate trustee being found resident in Australia at any time during a year of income through the exercise of central management and control in Australia at any time during that year.

If a trust estate is determined to be a resident trust estate, consideration may need to be given to a variety of other provisions of taxation laws along with any relevant Double Taxation Agreement to determine the net income of the trust estate and liability of beneficiaries presently entitled or in receipt of amounts derived from the trust estate. Additionally, CGT events I1 and I2 (i.e. when the trust estate becomes and ceases to be a resident trust for CGT purposes) will also need to be considered along with any withholding obligations arising upon the trustee.

Foreign resident beneficiaries may have Australian taxation obligations and liabilities even though the trustee is a foreign incorporated corporate considered outside of Australian taxation law to be a foreign resident and in receipt of foreign-sourced income.

信托空壳公司

Bucket Company in Trusts

空壳公司是作为信托的受益人而设立的公司。之所以使用“空壳”这个词，是因为该公司处于您的信托之下，并且用于向其中注入资金以减少税收。这使您可以将应纳税额限制为公司税率。

A bucket company is a company that is set up as a beneficiary to a trust. The term ‘bucket’ is used because the company sits below your trust and is used to pour money into it to reduce tax. This allows you to cap your tax payable at a corporate tax rate.

空壳公司结构的先决条件

运作空壳公司，必须具备三个先决条件：

- 需要有收入的信托来分配。

- 信托契约必须允许公司成为受益人。

- 公司受益人必须属于信托契约下的“受益人”定义。

信托契约应包括允许向受益人控制的公司分配资金的条款，即使该公司未在信托契约中得以明确指定。

Prerequisites for a bucket company structure

Three preconditions must exist for a bucket company to function:

- There needs to be a trust with income to distribute.

- The trust deed of the trust must allow for corporations to be beneficiaries.

- The corporate beneficiary must fall within the definition ‘beneficiary’ under the trust deed.

The trust deed should include a clause which allows for distributions to a corporation that a beneficiary controls, even though that corporation is not specifically named in the trust deed.

谁应该持有空壳公司的股份?

如果他们是个人，那么就不允许在如何分配股息方面就没有太多的灵活性。股息必须严格按照股东（持股）比例分配。

可以做的是让另一个单独的信托公司来持有该公司的股份。这样，信托公司就可以以最具税收效益的方式分配股息。

从资产保护的角度来看，持有信托公司的股份也是有益的。随着时间的推移，如果大量的利润分配给了公司，公司将会有很大的价值。如果股份是由个人持有的，这可能会使个人涉及至法律诉讼中。

在单独的信托中持有股份将创造另一层资产保护，同时还为如何有效分配股息征税提供了额外的灵活性。

然而，我们不建议在最初建立核心结构时就进行此操作。这可能会使事情不必要地复杂化。

公司的股东可以相对容易地在以后进行更换，因此，一旦有需要，就可以快速且经济高效地完成。

Who should hold the Bucket company shares?

If they are individuals, then this does not allow much flexibility in how the dividends are distributed. The dividends need to be distributed exactly according to the shareholder percentage.

What could be done is for another separate trust to hold the shares of the company. That way the dividends can be distributed by the trust in the most tax effective way.

Holding the shares in a trust is also beneficial from an asset protection perspective. Over time, if a large amount of profit is distributed to the company, the company will have a lot of value. If the shares are held by the individual, this can leave the individual exposed in the event of legal proceedings.

Holding the shares in a separate trust will create another layer of asset protection, whilst also providing extra flexibility of how to tax effectively distribute the dividends.

However, we do not recommend for this to be undertaken when the core structure is being set up initially. This is as it may unnecessarily complicate matters.

The shareholders of the company can be changed at a later date with relative ease, and given this, this could be completed quickly and cost effectively once the need arise.

如何处置空壳公司中的钱

（设立）空壳公司是益于持有长期投资的一种结构。

实际上，空壳公司可以成为一个投资公司，为所有者创造另一个收入来源。当现金从信托转移到公司时，这些现金就可以进行投资。

投资的例子可以是上市股票、投资房地产和私人投资。

通过公司进行投资时，您需要注意公司的纳税方式。公司没有资格享受50%资本利得税(CGT)折扣，而信托和个人如果持有资产超过12个月，则可以享受50％的资本利得税折扣。此外，公司内部的任何利润都应按当前27.5％的公司税率纳税。

但是，我们建议向公司董事支付工资及退休金。这可以减少公司的税收，并可以为没有工资收入的家庭成员提供必要的“借贷能力”。这笔工资可以用来获得银行贷款作为抵押。

最终的好处是，它可以释放现金，用于更“高风险”、更高回报的进一步投资。

What to do with money in the Bucket Company

A bucket company can be a very good structure to hold long-term investments.

Effectively, the bucket company can become an investment company that seeks to generate another income source for the owner. As cash is transferred across from a trust into the company, the cash can then be invested.

Examples of investments can be listed shares, investment properties, and private investments.

When investing via a company, you need to be mindful of how companies are taxed. Companies are not eligible for the 50 per cent capital gains tax (CGT) discount, while trusts and individuals can access a 50% CGT discount if an asset is held for more than 12 months. Also, any profit within a company is taxed at the current corporate tax rate of 27.5 per cent.

However, we do recommend that a salary and superannuation be paid to the director/s of the Company. This could reduce the tax of the company and also provide essential “borrowing capacity” to any family members who are not earning a salary. This salary could then be used to acquire a bank loan for a mortgage.

The ultimate benefit is that it could free up cash to be used for further investments which are more “high risk” with higher returns.

如何进行公司的分配

一旦确定该公司可被归类为有资格进行分配的公司，它将获得分配并按公司税率向ATO承担应缴税款。

由于分配和（通常）现金现在都在公司中，就产生了一个实际的问题，即如何处置。这取决于所采用的策略。对于一些人来说，空壳公司（以较低的税率对其进行纳税）的目的是将分配保留到将来可以分配给个人的时候。

另一种策略是贷款。如果贷款提供给相关实体，则需要Division 7A的合规贷款安排。

What to do with the distributions in the company

Once it is established that the corporation may be classified as eligible for a distribution, it will receive the distribution and be liable to the ATO for the tax payable at the corporate tax rate.

As the distribution and (usually) cash now sits in the corporation, there arises a practical question about what to do with it. This depends on the strategy in place. For some, the purpose of a bucket company (having paid tax on it at a lower rate) is to hold the distribution until some point in the future when it can be distributed to individuals.

Another strategy involves loaning the cash. If the loan is to a related entity, a Division 7A-compliant loan arrangement is needed.

文康-君益诚涉澳法律团队

无论您想在澳大利亚设立子公司还是收购澳大利亚公司股权或资产，文康-君益诚涉澳法律团队将为中国投资者提供最专业且全面的一站式服务。

通过与从事双边贸易和跨境投资的中澳跨国公司长期合作，我们拥有丰富的法律服务经验。

Whether you are seeking to establish a local Australian subsidiary or acquiring an interest in an Australian company or asset, Wincon – JYC Australia Legal Team provides an integrated end to end solution to Chinese investors.

Our experience comes from a history of working with Chinese and Australian multinationals engaged in bilateral trade and cross border investments.

团队介绍

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