Hello everyone,

My wife's mother (an Illinois resident) had a revocable living trust prepared a few years ago. As is common, the trust specifies that she is both the grantor and the trustee. Consequently, for tax purposes I've been reporting the trust income (strictly bank interest from CD's) directly on her personal return without filing Form 1041.

She has now developed dementia and has been declared incompetent by the court. My wife and brother-in-law are now the co-trustees, and have also been appointed guardians of her estate.

While I'm reasonably certain that this reamins a revocable grantor trust, my research and inquiries have led me to believe that we should now obtain a separate EIN for the trust because of the change in trustee. The procedure under this scenario would be to file Form 1041, but as an information return only (no numbers), and attach a grantor statement setting forth the grantor's income, deductions, and credits which must be shown (as before) on her personal Form 1040.

Do you agree with this approach, or is it acceptable to continue to report as before and not obtain a separate EIN?

Thanks for any assistance.