Tax question - please help.

Tax question - please help.

My husband and I run a small bus as partners- fed form 1065.

In addition, we have a small revocable family trust (for the children). We made the trust a partner too in the bus. The trust uses my SS#. (Our children are all minors)

So we have 3 partners - my husband, myself and the trust.

Have I done the right thing ? The trust and I have the same social security number. Is this in correct ? Since the trust has no social security #, it has to use mine or my husbands.

Does this create complication for reporting taxes to the IRS ? Will the IRS be ok with this ? Can they object to it ? Because my income and my husbands will be active. However, the income of the trust will be passive.

Pls let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. Thanks, R

Reply to
rita
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Wouldn't the person who did your trust be in the best position to give you advice on this? Our revocable trust uses my SS# as tax id.

Reply to
PeterL

I've been in this business for over 25 years; I'm an Enrolled Agent - FYI, a tax specialist. Don't take this personally, but you are in WAY over your head.

Revocable trusts are NOT for the children, they are nothing more than a way to avoid probate and even that is changing in some jurisdictions

- Maryland Probate now asks for disclosure of trusts so they can make sure assets are not improperly hidden from the rightful heirs.

Most trusts that are intended for anyone other than the settlor are IRrevocable trusts. These require their own ID numbers.

When a trust is revocable it often referred to as a Grantor trust - these are virtually invisible for tax purposes while the settlor is alive. Everything that belongs to the trust gets reported on the tax return of the settlor since they are the beneficiary while they are alive.

To properly report a revocable grantor type trust, you do use the SSN of the settlor and you report everything on the settlor's tax return. The trust does NOT file its own return and there is nothing to report. In your case, when you prepare the trust return you'd need to still issue 3 K-1s, then combine them on your personal return - 2 for you and 1 for your husband.

I do believe that there are simpler ways to do this and I KNOW there are other ways to do this. Whether any of these are better for you or not depends on your specific facts and circumstances.

I would recommend that you get professional assistance before going any further. The establishment of a trust is a delicate thing, there have to be legitimate reasons for setting up the trust and in order for it to accomplish its goals it not only needs to be set up correctly, it also needs to be administered correctly. If done incorrectly you can easily find that you've accomplished nothing but a lot of busy work.

Get professional help, Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA

Reply to
eagent

The best advise is to consult with the attorney who wrote the trust document. That governs the situation.

I don't know what kind of trust you have here & don't want to speculate.

-----> real address on hobokeni or hobokenx

Reply to
Benjamin Yazersky CPA

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