You have just been quoted a price to set up a trust, or you are budgeting for a restructure and need to know what a trust will cost before you commit. In Australia there is no single price for a trust, but the cost is predictable, because it is made up of a small number of identifiable parts: a professional fee that is quoted to you, a few fixed government charges, and one state tax that catches most owners by surprise.
The rule that produces the figure is straightforward. A trust is not a registered entity in the way a company is. There is no federal register of trusts and no federal fee to "register" a trust deed. A trust comes into existence when a trustee signs a deed under which property is held, or a business is run, for the benefit of named beneficiaries, usually settled with a nominal amount of $10 paid by a settlor who is not a beneficiary. The costs that follow split into three buckets: what your lawyer charges to draft the deed and advise on the structure, what the government charges if you use a company as trustee, and what your state charges in duty. Applications for the trust's ABN and TFN are free, as is the director ID that each director of a corporate trustee must hold.
The cost of a trust setup, item by item
The largest and most variable line is the legal work. A tailored trust deed and the advice that goes with it is priced per quote, and the amount depends on how bespoke the drafting needs to be, how many beneficiaries and powers you want, and whether the deed must coordinate with a company constitution or a unitholders agreement. Everything else on the list below is either fixed by the government or free.
| Cost item | Amount | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Trust deed drafting and legal advice | Quote-based, usually the largest line | Every setup |
| ASIC company registration | $636 (2026-27) | Only if you use a company as trustee |
| Company constitution | Quote-based | Only with a corporate trustee |
| Director ID for each director | Free | Directors of a corporate trustee |
| Trust ABN and TFN applications | Free | Every setup |
| NSW trust deed duty | $750 flat | Deeds executed in New South Wales |
| Transfer duty on property moved in | Ad valorem | If land or shares are transferred to the trust |
| Trust bank account | Usually free | Every setup |
| ASIC annual review fee | $342 each year | Corporate trustee only |
The ASIC figures are for the year running 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. ASIC indexes its fees each 1 July in line with CPI, so the numbers move every year, and ASIC fees are not subject to GST. Registration of a proprietary company with share capital cost $611 in 2025-26 and $636 from 1 July 2026, and the annual review fee for a standard proprietary company is $342. Pay the annual review late and ASIC adds $102 if you are within a month of the due date and $428 beyond that, with no grace period, so the review date is worth putting on the same calendar as your BAS deadlines.
State duty on the deed itself
The item that most often blows a budget is state duty, because the position is not uniform. In New South Wales, a trust deed that declares a trust over property that is not dutiable, or over unidentified property, attracts a flat duty of $750 under s 58 of the Duties Act 1997 (NSW). That applies to an ordinary business trust deed executed in NSW even though nothing but the $10 settlement sum is involved, which is why the NSW figure appears in the table above. By contrast, if the deed declares a trust over dutiable property such as land or shares, the declaration is itself a dutiable transaction under s 8 of the same Act and ad valorem transfer duty applies.
| State or territory | Standard deed over a nominal sum | Deed declaring a trust over dutiable property |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | $750 flat duty (s 58) | Ad valorem transfer duty (a declaration of trust is a dutiable transaction) |
| Victoria | Not assessed for a standard deed, but confirm lodgement with the SRO | Must be lodged and assessed for duty |
| Queensland | Generally not liable | Liable for duty |
| Tasmania | Not liable over non-dutiable or unidentified property | Liable for duty |
| Other states and territories | Generally no duty on the deed itself, but check your revenue office | Duty can apply to transfers of dutiable property into the trust |
In Victoria, the State Revenue Office requires a trust deed to be lodged and assessed where it creates or declares a trust over dutiable property in Victoria. In Queensland, trusts created over dutiable property are liable for duty, and in Tasmania a deed establishing a trust over identified dutiable property is dutiable while a deed over non-dutiable or unidentified property is not. The practical rule of thumb is that a standard discretionary trust settled with a nominal amount costs nothing in duty everywhere except New South Wales, where it costs $750, and the moment you move land or shares in, ad valorem duty becomes the question everywhere.
Two choices that move the price
Beyond the fixed government fees, two structural choices drive most of the difference between one trust budget and another.
Individual trustee or corporate trustee
An individual trustee keeps the government component of the setup at zero. A corporate trustee adds the $636 ASIC registration fee, a company constitution, and the $342 annual review fee each year after. That annual charge is the price of cleaner control: a company has directors and shareholders who can be replaced by resolution, whereas changing an individual trustee can require retitling assets and obtaining lender consent, which is often more expensive than the fees themselves. Lenders and investors also tend to prefer dealing with a corporate trustee, and it keeps the trust's affairs distinct from your personal ones. If the company is restricted by its constitution to a single narrow purpose, for example as trustee of one self-managed super fund, the annual review fee drops to $70, but that special purpose status only applies to companies that actually stay within the restriction.
Family trust or unit trust
A family discretionary trust gives the trustee discretion to distribute income and capital among a defined group, and the deed work is moderate: distribution flexibility, control provisions and succession planning. A unit trust divides the trust into units like shares, which suits multi-investor ventures, but the deed must set out unit rights carefully, and if there is more than one unit holder you will usually want a unitholders agreement covering decision-making, transfers, exits and dispute resolution. Issuing, transferring or redeeming units also carries its own legal and tax consequences, and some states charge duty on certain dealings involving unit trust landholders, so each significant ownership change is a separate cost event rather than a one-off.
Two worked budgets
The arithmetic below uses assumed drafting quotes, because those are the only part of the price that is not fixed. Swap in your own quote and the calculation still works.
Scenario A: family trust with a corporate trustee, deed executed in NSW
- Trust deed drafting and advice: $2,500 (assumed quote)
- ASIC company registration: $636
- Company constitution: included in the drafting quote
- Director IDs: $0
- ABN and TFN for the trust: $0
- NSW trust deed duty under s 58: $750
- Trust bank account: $0
- Year-one total: $3,886, then $342 each year for the ASIC annual review
Scenario B: unit trust with individual trustees, deed executed in Victoria, two investors
- Trust deed drafting and advice: $3,000 (assumed quote, unit trust deeds cost more)
- Unitholders agreement: $1,500 (assumed quote)
- ASIC fees: $0, because there is no corporate trustee
- ABN and TFN: $0
- Victorian deed duty: nil for a standard deed over a nominal sum, subject to confirming lodgement with the SRO
- Year-one total: $4,500, with no ASIC annual review fee, but budget for duty and advice each time units are issued or transferred
The two scenarios land at similar totals, but the recurring picture differs. The corporate trustee arrangement carries a fixed $342 a year in ASIC review fees, while the unit trust carries event-driven costs that only appear when ownership changes. That is the difference between a predictable annual line and a lumpy one.
Where the standard figures do not apply
The component table is a starting point, and these carve-outs are where budgets go wrong:
- A deed executed in New South Wales: the $750 flat duty applies even when the deed deals with nothing but the $10 settlement sum, because s 58 of the Duties Act 1997 (NSW) charges duty on a declaration of trust over non-dutiable or unidentified property.
- Dutiable property transferred in: ad valorem duty replaces the nominal picture once land or shares move into the trust, and in NSW a trust with foreign beneficiaries that acquires residential-related property can also face surcharge purchaser duty on top of transfer duty, so check the current rate with Revenue NSW before buying.
- Deed variations: in Victoria a variation to a discretionary trust can trigger duty if the trust holds dutiable property such as land, even where the trustee remains the registered owner, so amending the deed is not a no-cost exercise.
- Missed ASIC review: the $342 annual review is payable by the company's review date each year, late fees of $102 and $428 apply automatically, and repeated non-payment leads to deregistration, which is far more expensive to reverse than the fee itself.
- Unit trust changes: issuing or transferring units has tax and duty consequences in some states, so a unit trust with active trading of interests needs advice budgeted at each change.
- Special purpose companies: an SMSF-style trustee company pays only $70 a year in review fees, but only while its constitution genuinely restricts it to that single purpose.
Confirming your trust budget with Artificer Legal
Because most of the price is quoted rather than fixed, the way to control cost is to scope the structure before the drafting starts. An Artificer Legal practitioner would confirm which state's duty rules apply to your deed, including where it is taken to be executed when signed electronically under s 58 of the Duties Act 1997 (NSW), stress-test whether a corporate trustee is worth the $636 setup and $342 annual review for your circumstances, and draft the deed so that future changes, such as adding beneficiaries or replacing an appointor, do not trigger avoidable duty. Where a unit trust is involved, the unitholders agreement is usually priced and scoped at the same time, which is cheaper than drafting it after the fact. Ask for a fixed fee quote that itemises the government fees separately, and you will know exactly what each component is before you sign.
The figure most people get wrong
The single variable most likely to make you quote the wrong number is state duty, because the common assumption that trust deeds are never dutiable is correct in most states and wrong in New South Wales, where a standard deed costs $750 even before any property is involved, and because the moment dutiable property moves into the trust, ad valorem duty applies everywhere. So the number to check is not just the drafting quote; it is where the deed will be executed and what will be transferred in.
To summarise: the cost of setting up a trust in Australia is the drafting and advice quote, plus $636 in ASIC fees and $342 a year if you use a corporate trustee, plus state duty that is $750 flat in New South Wales and otherwise turns on whether dutiable property is involved, plus free registrations for the ABN, TFN and director IDs. Budgeting line by line against those components, with a quote for the legal work, gives you a figure you can rely on, and the only part of it that will keep changing is the CPI-indexed ASIC fees each 1 July.