DOES A LIVING TRUST PAY INCOME TAXES?
Not during your lifetime. For so long as you are either the trustee or a co-trustee, no income tax returns are required to be filed for your living trust. The taxpayer identification number for the trust is your Social Security number, and all income and deductions related to the assets held in the trust are reportable on your individual income tax returns. When you are no longer a trustee of your trust, then information returns must be filed by the trustee, reporting all of the income and deductions relating to the trust assets to the IRS and attributing them to your personal return; no additional tax is assessed by reason of the living trust. After your death, the income taxation of the living trust is similar to that applicable to a probate estate.
