Resigning as trustee - informing IRS

[jamba]

What is the name of your state? FL

Seeking suggestions on how to extract myself from a trustee role in the eyes of the IRS.

Background: I have been serving as trustee for an irrevocable family trust. I have zero beneficial interest in the trust. I have been filing 1041 tax returns for this trust, and I am listed as the trustee on the initial SS-4 (tax id application) from several years ago. Due to a difficult personal situation, I need to remove myself as trustee. I plan to resign as trustee, and the beneficiary of the trust would become the successor trustee by default according to the trust instrument. However, I know that the beneficiary is irresponsible and will almost certainly fail to file tax returns for the trust going forward.

I am looking to protect myself (cover my butt), so that the IRS does not come knocking at my door several years from now when the trust fails to properly pay taxes. I am trying to figure out how to properly notify the IRS, so that they will no longer affiliate me with the trust after I resign as trustee.

Form 8822 seems to only enable me to report a change of address, but does not enable me to report a change of trustee.

Any ideas? Thanks for your help.

 

[Dandy Don]

Hopefully the tax returns prepared while you were trustee were done by an accountant or CPA and are in order. If they weren't, then you should be submitting copies of the returns to a CPA/tax accountant who is experienced with estates to see if you have done things correctly.

You may be overreacting a little bit. If you have done nothing wrong, you don't need to contact the IRS about anything. If the subsequent trustee does something wrong, they will go after him and if there is no evidence that YOU did anything wrong you don't have anything to worry about from the IRS. You can't automatically assume that he will do anything wrong until he actually does it. You may want to warn the other trust beneficiaries that they should consider going to court to ask that a trustee's bond be posted if you fear that this executor will steal from the trust.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])