Trust Charitable Donations

May 31, 2022 Last reply: 4 years ago 1 Replies

In general, a trust is allowed to make charitable donations so long as the trustee has been granted the power in the trust document.



Further, my understanding is donations would be allowed as a deduction from current year income when made (or in appropriate cases when permanently set aside).



What happens to "excess" donations? Are they lost, like other excess deductions on a trust return? Or do they carry forward similar to individual returns?


There is no carryover provision for "excess donations" made by a complex trust. They are lost. There is a provision for making an election to treat a charitable contribution as having been made in the preceding year. This is explained in IRS Regulation 1.642(c)-1(b).

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