Fiduciary Income Tax Returns: Form 1041 Workshop with Filled-in Forms
Date: June 10, 2026
Speaker: Jason Dinesen
Form 1041 can be intimidating for tax professionals who do not prepare fiduciary income tax returns every day. This practical program is designed for EAs, CPAs, and small firm tax professionals who need a clear, basic, line by line approach to fiduciary income tax preparation. The course walks through the structure of Form 1041 and the core concepts that drive fiduciary reporting, including estates and trusts, distributable net income, income in respect of a decedent, beneficiary reporting, deductions, filing deadlines, and common preparation issues. The emphasis is on helping practitioners recognize what belongs on the return, where it belongs, and why it matters.
This course is designed as a comprehensive guide to the core concepts of trust and estate income tax preparation. The course explains the common terminology and complicated income tax rules of estates and trusts, fiduciary accounting, and an introduction to or refresher on preparing Form 1041. This practical, over 300-page manual is an excellent reference source for your practice, which begins with quite simple cases. Building upon that base throughout the manual, the course ends with two complicated preparation cases, one trust and one estate, each with filled-in forms.
This program will cover a line-by-line discussion of Form 1041, addressing both trust and estate income tax implications. Different kinds of trusts will be discussed, including Simple trusts, Complex trusts, and Grantor trusts. The program will also cover the often-misunderstood treatment of the charitable contribution deduction (Schedule A) and the Income Distribution Deduction (Schedule B), as well as various elections that can be made, including the “65-day rule.”
Learning Objectives:
- Be aware of fiduciary accounting principles
- Calculate Distributable Net Income and the income distribution deduction
- Prepare Form 1041 and Schedule K-1
Session Highlights:
- Classifying receipts between "income" and "corpus" under the Uniform Principal and Income Act
- Calculation of DNI utilizing three different methods, a "forms" method (Schedule B), a "code" method, and a "shortcut" method, utilizing a worksheet of common income and expenses
- Proper W-2 preparation and procedures in the year of death
- Taxpayer passes before taking a required minimum distribution; what must be done?
- Forgetful fiduciaries of simple trusts
- Fluctuating trusts -- Simple one year, complex the next
- Dividing income in the year of death
- Overview of Subchapter J
- Form preparation issues -- Filing requirements and line-by-line explanations of Form 1041
- Taxable income of estates and trusts and expense allocation issues
- Specific deductions and miscellaneous itemized deductions
- Income in respect of a decedent
- The income distribution deduction calculation
- Relation of the principal and income law to the DNI
- Understanding how to handle capital gains and losses
- Allocating tax items to beneficiaries: another K-1
- Other considerations: excess deductions on termination
- Comprehensive DNI case study, with principal (cost and FMV) and income reconciliation
- Comprehensive trust and estate case studies, with filled-in forms
Who Should Attend
All tax professionals who desire a better understanding of the fiduciary tax including the Form 1041 return reporting and be able to understand the flow of income from a trust to a beneficiary
