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Sorry to be so **bleep**, but I need more clarification on a couple of the answers, please.  Although I am more worried about the other beneficiaries than about myself as a beneficiary, I am most worried about doing my job correctly as the trustee (and executor) and not being subject to a lawsuit.   Regarding the state issue for K-1, I am responsible for providing those forms, rather than being the one receiving them (although, as a beneficiary, I will also be receiving whatever I provide as trustee, but let's table that).  As executor, are you saying that the trust's only responsibility is to provide a K-1 for the state where the estate was, which is Florida?  If so, since Florida has no income tax, doesn't that, then, mean no state K-1 is necessary?  Are you then also saying that the estate has no obligation to produce K-1s for any other states?  In other words, the beneficiaries will have to use the Federal K-1 for their states and that will be sufficient for them?

Regarding the deadline, I keep reading about the 15th of the month that is three months after the tax return year ends and, if the latter is December 31st, then that would be March 15th, not your April 15th.  I am guessing that the March 15th date is there to provide beneficiaries a minimum of a month to integrate the K-1s into their personal tax returns.   So, am I late already if the trust has not sent K-1s to the IRS and beneficiaries? if so, will I or the estate be assessed a penalty?  Please clarify.  Is it too late to change the tax year to end a year from the first death which would, coincidentally, move the first trust's date to April, and the other trust's to July?  If you delay that tax year, how could you account for the months in between?

I know you have already clarified this but everywhere I read, including TurboTax's information "What is a Schedule K-1 Form 1041: Estates and Trusts?", about the need for K-1s, it talks about income, e.g., $600 max, not distributions as one criterion for whether a K-1 is needed.   Setting aside, for the moment, that there may actually be a loss, AFAIK, the trust made no income, and all it did was sell its one asset (parents home, sold for less than the value assigned as of date of death) and distribute it to the beneficiaries.  If no one cared about a tax loss, are you sure K-1 still needs to be filed?

Are you also saying that, if the property sold for its valuation at death, that the sales commission, if that were the only expense, would constitute a loss, indeed the entire loss?  Specifically, are you saying that the broker valuation should not deduct (expected) sales commissions?

Actually, are you also saying that we can deduct all costs of settling the estate, even those not associated with the trust's single asset, the home?  FWIW, in case it would matter, any other assets have sold at prices below their valuation at death, such as collectibles and, indeed, some of those valuations costs some money to get done, so they would seem to be an expense of the estate but not for the home.

When you talk about allocating any (income or) loss by percentage, if certain beneficiaries got fixed dollar distributions, I assume you mean to simply compute the effective percentage they got compared to the distributions to all beneficiaries, and use that, right?

Thanks again so very much.  Please answer each and every question I've asked.  Sorry to be so confused.  This is the first and, I expect, last time I will be a trustee/executor.