On the "hard override" of the checked "Complex trust" box, I'd already tried that, and TurboTax won't let me uncheck the box that way either.
On the issue of whether the IRS considers that there's "always an estate," that's actually inconsistent with the 1041 instructions. My quote about the trust filing "as if it were an estate" is straight from those instructions.
And if you look at the discussion of the "Election period" on page 5 of the 2022 instructions, you'll see that the first bullet point points to "the day on which the electing trust and related estate, if any, distribute all of their assets."
I don't see how "if any" could have any meaning in that context if it isn't referring to a scenario where there isn't any "related estate" -- i.e., a scenario where all the assets are in the trust.
And that's the scenario where, rather than the 645 election causing the trust to be *combined" with an estate (and where the executor, rather than the trustee, files the return for what the IRS regs call the "combined entity"), the electing trustee files the return (again, quoting the IRS) "as if it were an estate."
A semantic argument in the end, really. I just wish the TurboTax Step-by-Step didn't steer a trustee in my situation into making a wrong choice (per TurboTax) right up front that can't be corrected later, after they've put a lot of time into preparing the return.
After you select "Trust or Estate return" in the Step-by-Step and provide your first name, the next screen asks, "Do You Need to Take Care of a Trust or Estate?" And the two choices are:
--A trust. This will say "trust" in the title of the document.
--An estate. This is for someone who passed away. There may be a will.
I chose "trust," obviously. But I've now discovered that if you choose "estate," there are several screens about the decedent and EIN, and then a screen that asks, "Are You the Executor of the Estate?"
And if you say, "No," a new question pops up that asks, "Who is the executor?" (with boxes for the first and last name).
Needless to say, a trustee in my situation can't answer that question, because there is no executor.
And probably needless to say, these screens are not unlikely to lead the trustee of an electing trust (in a no-executor case) to think that making the "trust" choice up front is the correct approach at this stage of the Step-by-Step.
And again, once that choice is made, it apparently can't be undone at any later point, which creates a not insignificant risk that the trustee will end up spending a lot of time on the return and then have to start over.
*sighs*
Not your fault, of course, and I appreciate your input. If some other technique for unchecking the "Complex trust" box occurs to you, please let me know.
