Trust and estates had a total income of £2.73 billion in 2017-18, representing a 12 percent increase from the previous year, according to HMRC statistics.

Their total tax bill stood at £1.32 billion, 51 percent of which was income tax and the rest capital gains. This is a five percent increase from the previous year.

The number of trusts declined by six percent from 2016-17 to 2017-18 to 149,000, marking four consecutive years of annual fall and a huge fall of close to a third over the 12 year period covered by HMRC’s statistics.

Mike Hodges, partner in the private wealth team at Saffery Champness, noted t...