 Tax planning usually plays a considerable role relative to the use of trusts.Historically, whilst the courts have been fairly amenable to the use of trusts in tax planning, as tax planning schemes have become more aggressive, so the courts have increasingly taken a restrictive view of their tax treatment.Although individual countries tend to have very detailed rules about the taxation of trusts, the three mechanisms whereby taxation is usually assessed is by either treating (i) the trust as a separately taxable entity in its own right, (ii) treating the trust property as still the property of the settlor, and (iii) treating the trust property as belonging absolutely to the beneficiaries.