I am the beneficiary AND trustee. How do I file taxes for this trust? Do I use my own Social Security number? The trust doesn't have one.

[winnoway]

Mom set this up as revocable trust during her lifetime and I was cotrustee. Now she passed away and I am trustee of the new trust and have access to trust content/income, but if they are not spent in my lifetime, trust passes to my brother and then to his children and so on, generation after generation.

Trust name remained unchanged after mom passed except that it is now "for benefit of" me. It was given my Social Security number. As the trustee, do I have to file a separate tax return for the trust or just report the dividends, etc. under my ss number?

[Anonymous_ · Accepted solution]

" ...do I have to file a separate tax return for the trust or just report the dividends, etc. under my ss number?"

First, you should consider seeking assistance and counsel from a professional conversant with trust issues.

If you decide you would like to handle the matter on your own, you will need to apply for an EIN for the trust; the trust became a separate entity when your mother passed and needs its own tax ID number.

See https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-n...

In any tax year in which the trust taxable income or gross income of $600 or more (regardless of taxable income), the trust will have to file Form 1041. See https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1041/ch01.html#d0e378

In order to prepare a 1041, and associated K-1s for the trust, you will need to purchase a copy of TurboTax Business as well as a personal income tax preparation product (see note below). 

TurboTax Business:  https://turbotax.intuit.com/small-business-taxes/

Note: TurboTax Business must be installed and run in a Windows environment; it is not available as an online product nor will it run natively on a Mac. Further, you still need a TurboTax personal income tax preparation product since TurboTax Business is not capable of preparing individual income tax returns (it can only prepare returns for entities).