---
title: "New Directors Penalty Notices (DPN's) - Sapience Financial"
description: "Managing a family trust has become more complex due to recent court cases. The ATO has released a checklist for trustees to make beneficiaries entitled to trust"
url: "https://www.sapience.com.au/resources/small-business-alerts/new-ato-checklist-for-trust-distributions"
date: "2026-06-01T20:19:49+00:00"
language: "en-GB"
---

#  Small Business Alerts

##  New ATO checklist for Trust Distributions

- [ small business ](https://www.sapience.com.au/all-tags/small-business)
- [ company directors ](https://www.sapience.com.au/all-tags/company-directors)
- [ SME News Alert ](https://www.sapience.com.au/all-tags/sme-news-alert)
- [ small business news ](https://www.sapience.com.au/all-tags/small-business-news)

### New ATO Checklist for Trust Distributions![](https://www.sapience.com.au/images/blog/news/small-business-news-updates-sapience-financial.svg)

Recent court cases extending the obligations of trustees to consider beneficiaries (see Re Owies Family Trust \[2020\] VSC 716) making managing a family trust considerably more complex.

The ATO has released a checklist for trustees who wish to make beneficiaries presently entitled to trust income, by way of making resolutions. The checklist can be found [here](https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Trusts/In-detail/Trust-tax-time-toolkit/Resolutions-checklist/).

- The ATO has said on its website ‘You need to ensure resolutions meet the requirements explained below’ and so it is important that any trustee is aware of what the ATO expects before making resolutions.

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