trust return preparation and 1041

[Jimbotax2]

I have experience preparing personal and corporate taxes with Turbotax, and I would like to know how difficult or easy it would be to prepare trust returns for several irrevocable trusts with Turbotax for Business?

[Bsch4477]

Are you a paid tax preparer?

[Jimbotax2]

No,  I am not a paid tax preparer.  I have two personal trusts and my wife has one trust.  All irrevocable trusts, and I have had a CPA prepare the trust returns prior.

[ScruffyCurmudgeon]

The "BUSINESS" product of TurboTax can prepare the Federal 1041 and where a state has a comparable return required, that is available at additional cost for each state.  The single most important caveat is that the program (available only in Desktop installed software) cannot import financial transactions such as bank or credit card activity.  There is an alternative that is new in TurboTax and that is the LIVE service using a professional preparer online. For info and cost:
https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/online/live/business-taxes/

I would also say that if you really understand all the forms that have been prepared for prior years, then, with the exception of a few unusual forms, the Business product supports what you need.  However, you will have to manually all prior year carry-over and basis data (basis = cost of acquisition as adjusted)  However, as said, if you depend on downloading 100's of investment transactions  you will be most upset at the lack of import built in to the product (3rd party add-on software may be suitable to support your needs for this purpose)

[Jimbotax2]

Thanks for your reply.  I realize I will have to enter info from depreciation summaries to establish prior and current depreciation amounts, cost at acquisition, etc.  I also would be entering a relatively small amount of investment transactions, nowhere near hundreds of transactions.  Also, wouldn't I just be entering the info from the 1099s from my broker, such as net long or short term capital gains and total dividends and interest for the year as listed on the 1099?  My reason for the question to begin with is that I am considering working with a local Enrolled Agent rather than the larger CPA firm 35 miles away I have been working with the past several years whose prices are approaching nose bleed levels and I don't feel I need the services of a large CPA firm and wanted to see how difficult it might be to prepare the trust returns myself since I have a pretty good knowledge of taxes and have worked with Turbotax on my personal and business returns in the past.

[ScruffyCurmudgeon]

Personally, I, and most of the other volunteer folks (so-called "Champs") make use of the Desktop product, even in the Personal filing, because we can go directly to the Forms, see the entries made and calculated and make further entries such as you mention, namely entering in Depreciation previous accumulated, adding in the prior-year carry-over losses or credits, et elii. Entering in amounts from 1099-INT 1099-DIV is simple   Nowadays, brokerage statements generally provide you all you need for basis, realized gains or losses, and for bonds - the amount annually of premium or discount  that may effect reported amounts.

When you have entered in all income, allowable expenses including Trustee fees, and amounts distributed to beneficiaries, the only thing to watch for is being careful in completing Form 1041 Schedule B (2nd page) relative to apportioning the distributions if your IRT is a "Complex Trust" allowing distributions that may include principal.  A "Simple Trust" must distribute all ordinary income to beneficiaries in order to avoid trust taxation, although of course the trust does have some minimal line 21 Exemption.

[Jimbotax2]

Thanks, all good information. Since I have prepared my personal taxes in the past with turbotax, and for a prior corporation, I mainly wanted to ask for opinions of how easy or difficult doing simple trust returns might be. I have only used a CPA to do the trust returns in the past but am considering trying to prepare the 3 trust returns I will be preparing for 2023. I understand that I will need Turbotax Business to prepare trust returns, and I see that it includes 5 federal e-files so that will cover the 3 trust returns I need to prepare. Regarding the State filings, it states that the price per state form is $50, To be clear, does that mean it will cost $50 for each of the 3 trust returns I will have to prepare for my statef?

[DaveF1006]

Once you download a state into a Turbo Tax product, you won't need to download the same state to prepare multiple returns. if different states are required to be reported each return, you will need to download the additional states.