Why do we require a trust to provide a Tax Identification Number (TIN)?
A. A person who is not an individual is required by federal income tax regulations to furnish a TIN to a payor of income. Thus, a trust must submit its TIN. Some trusts are grantor trusts under federal income tax law. The trustee of the grantor trust may provide the social security number of a living grantor (a person treated as the owner of the trust under federal income tax law) instead of the trust’s TIN. In the typical case in which there is a single grantor of the grantor trust and that grantor is the insured who has died, the trustee must furnish the trust’s TIN, not the social security number of the grantor/trustee.
