Thanks for your reply and of course that’s the answer I anticipated. If you don’t mind, I’d like to press a little more on Question 1.
I’m very good with computers and data processing and if there’s any way to get Turbotax Business for Windows to import the data (even if manually entered) from my (long, complex) brokerage consolidated 1099 documents, I might be willing to undertake that effort if it would pay off with an e-filed return rather than file on paper. Would an e-filed trust 1041 return: a) even be possible with Turbotax Businees?, and if yes, then b) would such a return require manual processing by the IRS? Would the IRS still need to verify the return using the Adobe PDF format of the consolidated 1099s from the brokers, thus making the whole effort seemingly pointless?
The motivation here is that I might choose to skip the charitable tax deductions (form 1041-A in question 2 above) IF it would allow me to e-file and quickly know that the IRS had processed the return.
