Trust taxes for California

[Derick W]

What are the CA income tax brackets for irrevocable trusts? Are there any differences in rates between ordinary earned income or qualified dividends/LT capital gains, like there is on the federal level?

[DaveF1006 · Accepted solution]

It depends if the trust is taxed on the entity level or passed to the beneficiaries. If the trust pays the taxes, then look at the tax rate for the trust income by looking at the 2023 tax table in the following State of California publication. 

In this case, all income is taxed at a flat tax rate regardless whether these be long term capital gains, qualified dividends, interest. It doesn't matter because all income is treated the same for 1041 reporting purposes.

Now let's assume that the total of all this income is $18,000. According to the tax table, this income is taxed at $104.12 + ($18,000-10,412)(.02)=$256. I confirmed this amount in my sample mock return.

Now if the income was passed to the beneficiaries, then their distributive amounts will appear in their individual K-1's and they will be responsible for paying the tax. When this income is reported on the K-1's,  the income from long-term capital gains, qualified dividends will be taxed at the capital gains rate on their returns and the interest income will be taxed at the ordinary tax rate. 

Let me know if this helps.

[Edited 02/15/24|6:15 am PST]