Joint Revocable Trust Reports To IRS Under Deceased Individuals SSN

Spency

My Father passed away at the end of the year 2024. My parents have revocable Trust that they made together. The way the Trust was written is that if one person passes away the other one takes over and it is still revocable. My mother filed her final joint filing personal tax return indicating my father passed away.

My parents had a post tax brokerage account that was under the Trust. This account used my father's SSN to report to the IRS. This was not realized till recently. The brokerage company indicated that they cannot change the SSN that the IRS will be reported under even though the brokerage account was under the trust with equal rights to both of my parents. The account has only made income in dividends and interest of around $800 for 2025 until we were able to transfer it out to a brokerage account that was under my mother's SSN. This $800 will be reported to IRS under my father's SSN.

The question is how are we supposed to pay these taxes? Do we include the 1099 DIV and INT in my mother's personal tax return and put something like "in regards to decedent :full name, SSN#"? If this is how I can go about it, how am I supposed to indicate this using FreetaxUSA? Under the Payer name do I put the "IRD, name and SSN#"? I don't see anywhere else I can put this information.

JohnV

Hi Spency - The IRS has specific guidance on how to report the 1099s under his name and SSN on your mother's tax return in Publication 559 on page 7 under the "Interest and Dividend Income (Forms 1099)."

The first option is to ask the payer to issue corrected 1099s under your mother's name and SSN.

If this is not possible, then the IRS provides the instruction from the decedent's perspective, which is to report all income from the 1099, and then subtract out using the "Nominee distribution" or other similar designation.

Therefore, from your mother's perspective, she can put in a description such as "Nominee Interests" or "Nominee Dividends," the opposite of the Nominee Distribution, and then enter the total amount of the Income.

You do not have to attach the note or explanation to the IRS since the IRS does not require one. If you want it to be more detailed, add the SSN next to the description Nominee Interests.

JericaG

Hi Spency,

This does depend a lot on the trust agreement. From my experience it not normal for the surviving spouse to retain the full value of trust assets as revocable after one spouse dies. Normally the share of the trust of the decedent becomes irrevocable and the ownership must be switched over.

As long as the trust agreement states that all of the assets in the account remained revocable, then yes, your mother can just report the dividend and interest amounts on her return.

Since she is no longer filing a married filing jointly return, the option to include your father's social security number will not appear in FreeTaxUSA. This is okay because the income is being reported correctly by your mother. You can input the 1099-INT and 1099-DIV the same as if she had received the form.

You have taken the correct next steps for future years to make sure this income is reported in your mothers social security number.

Spency

Thank you for getting back to me! We do plan to put the 1099 INT and DIV in as reported but I just want to confirm how do I inform the IRS that this 1099 INT and DIV are coming from my father's social security number? Do I attach the 1099s with the 1040 with a note stating "recipient of nominee" or something along those lines? Currently I plan to put the 1099s in with the payer name being the (paying institute, IRD name, SSN#)

Regards