Do Living Trusts Require Tax Returns? 📝

Let's say you get your trust. You're like, "All right, Mark, how big of a pain in the butt is this? Does it need a tax return? Do I need a tax ID number? And what do you mean put everything into it?" The trust is pretty dang simple. It's a document that's going to have some decisions in it. Who gets what? You can put restrictions on whether they can get it. You're going to list maybe your kids, your spouse's beneficiaries. You can put restrictions on maybe they have a drug or alcohol condition, they're bad with money, they got judgments against them and creditors chasing them. You can restrict it so they don't get distributions and the trust doesn't get wasted. That's the when and how. So it's this document that says all this stuff. And you also appoint someone called a trustee who carries out all of your wishes, who has the authority without having to go to court or have some judge say this is okay to distribute your assets according to your wishes in this trust document. This is a private document you get to keep. Your bank or financial institution— some people may want this as you're starting to add assets. It's simply a document, no tax return, no tax ID. Don't stress about that stuff.