How Much Does a Family Trust Cost to Set Up and Run in Australia?

A family trust costs between about $166 and $500 to set up yourself through an online deed provider, or roughly $1,500 to $3,000+ if an accountant or lawyer establishes it for you, and then $1,000 to $3,000+ a year to run (as at September 2026). Add $636 if you want a company as trustee, and stamp duty of up to $750 depending on your state. Here's every cost line, a first-year and ongoing total, and a plain-English way to work out whether a trust will save you more than it costs.

If you're still working out what a trust actually is and how the trustee, appointor and beneficiaries fit together, read our family trust guide for business owners first. This page is just about the money.

Setup costs, line by line

1. The trust deed: $166 to $3,000+

The deed is the legal document that creates the trust and sets its rules. It's the one cost you can't avoid, and it's where the price range is widest.

How you get the deed	Typical cost (as at September 2026)	What you're paying for
Online document provider, individual trustee	$166–$330 inc GST	A standard discretionary trust deed generated from a questionnaire. Cleardocs charges $166.10; Patricia Holdings $220 (PDF) to $330 (printed and couriered). No advice.
Online provider bundle with corporate trustee	About $1,000	Cleardocs' Family Trust Trustee Bundle is $1,007.25 and includes the deed, a new trustee company (with ASIC's $636 fee) and ABN, TFN and GST registration.
Accountant or lawyer establishes the trust	$1,500–$3,000+	Advice on whether a trust suits you, who should be trustee and appointor, a deed drafted for your family and business, and the registrations handled. Some quotes include the trustee company; check.

The online deeds aren't inferior documents. Most accountants order from the same providers. What you lose by going DIY is the conversation before the order form: whether you should have a trust at all, who the appointor should be (the person who can hire and fire the trustee, which is the real control seat), whether to exclude foreign beneficiaries to avoid state surcharges, and how the trust fits with your other structures. Getting those wrong costs far more than the fee gap.

2. A corporate trustee: $636 to register, $342 a year

You can be the trustee personally for nothing. Most accountants recommend a company as trustee instead, because the trustee is the one who signs contracts and gets sued, and a company keeps that liability off your personal assets. It also makes changing control easier later.

The cost is a second entity to register and maintain:

• ASIC company registration: $636 from 1 July 2026. Online providers add a service fee; Cleardocs charges $145 on top, so $781 all up.
• ASIC annual review fee: $342 every year, due within two months of the company's review date. Pay late and the fee is $102 (up to one month late) or $428 (more than a month late).
• Directors' obligations. Each director needs a director ID (free), and the company must keep basic registers even though it does nothing but act as trustee.

A trustee company for a family trust pays the full $342. ASIC's cheaper $70 "special purpose company" rate only applies to SMSF trustee companies and a few other narrow categories. For the full picture of company costs, see how much it costs to set up a company.

3. Stamp duty on the deed: $0 to $750

Three jurisdictions charge duty on a trust deed even when the trust holds nothing but the $10 settled sum. Five charge nothing. The deadlines matter because late lodgement attracts penalty interest.

Where the deed is signed	Duty	Lodge within
New South Wales	$750	3 months
Victoria	$200	30 days
Northern Territory	$20	60 days
Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, ACT	Nil	Not required

(Figures as at September 2026. NSW rose from $500 to $750 on 1 February 2024. Tasmania used to charge $50, but deeds dated on or after 1 July 2017 over non-dutiable property are no longer liable for duty there.)

In NSW you lodge through Revenue NSW's Duties Online; in Victoria through the State Revenue Office's Duties Online. If you'd rather a provider handle it, expect a service fee of roughly $75 to $145 on top of the duty. Patricia Holdings charges $121 for a digitally signed deed or $143 for a wet-ink one; Cleardocs' NSW stamping service is $830.85 including the $750 duty, and its Victorian service $274.25 including the $200.

4. ABN, TFN and GST registration: $0

This is the most common question we're asked about trusts, so here's the direct answer: yes, a family trust needs its own ABN if it carries on a business. The trust is a separate tax entity. The trustee applies "as trustee for the [Name] Family Trust" through the Australian Business Register, and it's free. You can apply for the trust's TFN and, if needed, GST registration in the same application.

Two nuances:

• A trust that only holds passive investments (shares, a rental property) may not be "carrying on an enterprise" and may not be entitled to an ABN. It still needs a TFN, because it lodges a tax return every year.
• GST registration is compulsory once the trust's business turnover reaches $75,000 a year. That triggers BAS lodgements, which is a big part of why a trading trust costs more to run than an investment trust.

Online providers will do the ABN application for you for around $60 (Cleardocs charges $59.95). That's a convenience fee, not a government one. If anyone tells you an ABN itself costs money, read how much an ABN costs.

5. A business name: $47 a year (optional)

A trust's name isn't a trading name. If the trustee trades under anything other than its own legal name (for example "Smith Family Pty Ltd as trustee" trading as "Smith Plumbing"), you register a business name with ASIC: $47 for one year or $108 for three years from 1 July 2026.

6. The settled sum and a bank account: about $10

Someone who isn't a beneficiary (the settlor, usually your accountant or a family friend) gives the trustee a nominal amount, typically $10, to bring the trust into existence. The trustee then opens a bank account in the trust's name. Most business transaction accounts are free or a few dollars a month.

What a family trust costs to run each year

Setup is a one-off. These costs repeat every year for as long as the trust exists, and they're the numbers that decide whether the trust is worth having.

Ongoing cost	Typical annual cost (as at September 2026)
Accounting, financial statements and trust tax return — investment-only trust	$1,000–$2,500
Accounting for a trust running a business — bookkeeping, BAS, payroll, tax return	$2,000–$4,000+
ASIC annual review fee (corporate trustee only)	$342
Trustee distribution resolution before 30 June	$0–$70 for a DIY minute, or included in your accountant's fee
Business name renewal (if you have one)	$47
Deed variations when needed (change of trustee, excluding foreign beneficiaries)	$200–$400 each time

Three of these deserve a closer look.

The trust tax return. The trust lodges its own return every year, showing its income and which beneficiary was entitled to what. Each beneficiary then declares their share in their own return. The trust itself usually pays no tax if all income is distributed, but the return still has to be prepared, and that's the bulk of the accounting bill. Miss the lodgement deadline and the ATO can charge one penalty unit ($364 from 1 July 2026) for each 28 days late, capped at five units ($1,820) for small entities.

The 30 June distribution resolution. Before the end of every financial year the trustee must decide, in writing, who gets that year's income and in what proportions. Miss it and, unless your deed has a default beneficiary clause that saves you, the ATO can tax the undistributed income in the trustee's hands at the top marginal rate of 47%. Your accountant will normally prepare the minute in June; if you do it yourself, Cleardocs sells a distribution minute template for $69.30. Either way, put it in the calendar. It's the single most expensive thing to forget.

The accountant's fee. The range is wide because the work is. A trust holding one share portfolio might need a couple of hours a year. A trust running a cafe with staff needs quarterly BAS, payroll reporting and a full set of financials. Get a fixed-fee quote before you set up, and ask what's included.

Total cost: first year and every year after

Putting it together for three common setups. Accounting is included at the low end of the range for the first return.

Scenario	First-year cost	Each year after
DIY deed, you as individual trustee, no-duty state (Qld, SA, WA, ACT), investment trust	$1,200–$2,900	$1,000–$2,500
DIY deed with corporate trustee, NSW, small trading business	$2,700–$4,500	$2,400–$4,400
Accountant-established trust with corporate trustee, NSW, trading business	$3,900–$7,000+	$2,400–$4,400

The pattern is clear: the setup route changes your first-year bill by a few thousand dollars, but after that the running costs converge. Over ten years the DIY saving is a rounding error next to the accounting fees. Judge the trust on its ongoing cost, not its setup cost.

Is a family trust worth the cost?

Only if it saves you (or protects for you) more than it costs to run. For most small business owners the saving is tax, and it comes from one mechanism: the trustee can distribute income to family members on lower marginal rates instead of it all landing on you at the top of your bracket.

A worked example

Say your business makes $150,000 profit and your partner has no other income. Using 2026-27 resident rates plus the 2% Medicare levy, and ignoring offsets:

• As a sole trader, you pay about $39,570 in income tax and Medicare levy on $150,000.
• Through a trust distributing $75,000 to each of you, you pay about $14,520 each, or $29,040 in total.

That's a saving of roughly $10,500 a year before costs. Take off $2,500 to $3,500 in running costs and the trust is still around $7,000 to $8,000 a year ahead. Clearly worth it, provided your partner really does receive and benefit from that $75,000. The ATO's section 100A rules target arrangements where a low-taxed beneficiary is entitled to income on paper but someone else actually gets the money.

Now run the same sums at $60,000 profit. The splitting saving shrinks to a few thousand dollars, the running costs are the same, and you're roughly break-even for a lot of extra paperwork. Somewhere in between is your threshold, and it depends on who your beneficiaries are and what else they earn.

Rules of thumb

• You need at least one adult beneficiary in a materially lower bracket than you, who genuinely receives the money. A spouse earning $130,000 gives you almost nothing to split into.
• Children under 18 don't help much. A minor's unearned trust income above $416 a year is taxed at penalty rates, up to 45%.
• The more profit above roughly $100,000 you have to spread, the faster the trust pays for itself. Below about $70,000 the case is usually weak on tax alone.
• If asset protection or passing the business to the next generation is your real reason, the tax sums matter less. Those benefits are covered in the family trust guide.

The 30% minimum tax proposal changes this maths

In the May 2026 Federal Budget the Government announced a 30% minimum tax on discretionary trusts, proposed to start from 1 July 2028. Under the proposal the trustee would pay 30% on the trust's taxable income up front, and beneficiaries would get a non-refundable credit. Anyone on a marginal rate above 30% would pay a top-up; anyone below 30% would get no refund of the difference. Corporate beneficiaries ("bucket companies") would get no credit at all.

If it becomes law in that form, the worked example above largely stops working: distributing to a partner on the 15% bracket would no longer bring the family's overall rate below 30%, and a trust could end up paying more than a sole trader would. The Government has also announced rollover relief from 1 July 2027 to 30 June 2030 to help small businesses restructure out of trusts.

As at September 2026 this is a Treasury consultation paper, not legislation, and the final design could change. But it's exactly why you shouldn't set up a trust purely for income splitting without talking it through with your accountant first. If a company might suit you better, start with trust vs company in Australia.

Ways to keep the cost down

• Buy the deed online, pay for the advice separately. An hour or two with an accountant to confirm the structure and the trustee/appointor choices, then a $166 deed, is often the best value route.
• Don't add a corporate trustee you don't need yet. If the trust will only hold a share portfolio and you're comfortable being personally liable, an individual trustee saves $636 now and $342 every year. You can appoint a company later, though a change of trustee costs a deed update and, in some states, duty on any property transferred.
• Lodge the deed for stamping on time. Penalty interest on a $750 NSW bill is avoidable money.
• Do your own bookkeeping properly. Clean, reconciled records in accounting software are the difference between a $1,500 and a $3,000 tax return fee.
• Ask whether the setup costs are deductible. For a trust set up to run a small business, the professional fees for establishing the structure may be immediately deductible as start-up costs. For an investment trust they usually aren't. Your accountant will know.

Key takeaways

• Setting up a family trust costs $166 to $500 DIY, or $1,500 to $3,000+ through an accountant or lawyer (as at September 2026). A corporate trustee adds $636 for ASIC registration.
• Stamp duty on the deed is $750 in NSW, $200 in Victoria, $20 in the NT, and nil elsewhere (including Tasmania). Lodge within the deadline or pay penalty interest.
• A trust that runs a business needs its own ABN and TFN. Both are free from the Australian Business Register; providers charge around $60 to do the form for you.
• Running costs are $1,000 to $2,500 a year for a simple investment trust and $2,000 to $4,000+ for a trading business, plus $342 a year for a corporate trustee. Judge the trust on these, not the setup fee.
• The trust pays for itself when you have enough profit and at least one adult beneficiary on a much lower rate who genuinely receives the money. Below about $70,000 profit, the tax case is usually weak.
• The proposed 30% minimum trust tax from 1 July 2028 could wipe out most income-splitting savings. Get advice before setting one up for tax reasons alone.

Where to get help

• Australian Business Register: trusts for ABN entitlement and the free ABN/TFN application.
• ATO: trust registration and reporting obligations for what the trustee must lodge each year.
• ASIC fees for current company registration and annual review fees.
• Revenue NSW: establishing a trust and State Revenue Office Victoria: trust deeds for deed stamping.
• Your accountant. Before you order a deed, ask for a fixed-fee quote covering setup and the first year's compliance, and a straight answer on whether the tax saving beats the running cost for your numbers. If you don't have one yet, our guide to choosing a business structure will help you frame the questions.