03/13/2024
Trusts - an agreement in which holds and manages property for beneficiaries of the trust. If such trust provides that you retain the power to amend while you are alive, it is a revocable living trust. An irrevocable trust, in contrast, is a trust that cannot be amended. The revocable living trust is for managing your property during your lifetime, including even if you become incapacitated, and might also allow you to pass your property on to your beneficiaries at death without probate. While you are alive, income on the property in the revocable living trust is reported on the grantor's income tax return. (If you are not the trustee, the trustee must file an annual fiduciary income tax return as an information return.) In contrast, an irrevocable trust requires the filing of separate fiduciary income tax returns based on income earned on the property held in such a trust each year after the irrevocable trust is created until its termination. Further, the property put into an irrevocable trust, if properly done, is no longer considered part of the grantor's estate and not subject to estate tax at the grantor's death.