Grantor Trust Answer Book (2018)

A grantor trust is a trust in which the settlor retains control over the trust property or its income to such an extent that the settlor is taxed on the trust's income.

The use of grantor trust arrangements has become an important estate planning tool. Owners of grantor trusts may be shareholders of S corporations. A number of desirable and sophisticated estate planning arrangements involve grantor trust status as the starting point. These include grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), grantor retained unitrusts (GRUTs), personal residence trusts (PRTs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs) and intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs).

Grantor Trust Answer Book (2018) addresses the following:

The grantor trust rules can be found in Code Sections 671 through 679. Each of these Sections describes a particular set of rules and circumstances that will cause a trust to be treated as a grantor trust. Each of these Code Sections is discussed in a separate Chapter addressing its rules and requirements.

Some of the interests retained by a grantor that make a trust a grantor trust also cause inclusion of the trust property in the grantor’s estate. Other interests do not. These distinctions are discussed throughout the publication.

Separate chapters address the estate planning uses of all types of grantor trusts (GRATs and GRUTs, PRTs and QPRTs, IDGTs).

Grantor trust issues are involved in the design of certain charitable trusts, notably charitable lead trusts and these are discussed in detail.

Coverage of foreign grantor trusts which is increasingly a topic of planning interest and government concern is included as well.

The fact that grantor trusts are subject to special income tax filing and reporting rules is discussed.

The role grantor trusts may have in planning for life insurance ownership, like kind exchanges and involuntary conversions are also among the issues addressed.