EIN for a Trust After the Grantor Dies

What changed on the date of death

A revocable living trust is a grantor trust while the grantor is alive. The grantor can change it, revoke it, or take the assets back, so for tax purposes there is no separate taxpayer. Income is reported on the grantor’s own return and the trust uses their Social Security number wherever a number is needed.

Death removes the power to revoke. The trust is now irrevocable, its assets belong to it and not to any living person, and the IRS treats it as a taxpayer in its own right. That is the whole reason a new number is needed: not because a rule says trusts get EINs, but because the thing the SSN belonged to no longer exists.

Banks understand this. A successor trustee who walks in with a death certificate and the trust document will be asked for the trust’s EIN before the account can be retitled or a new one opened, and the deceased grantor’s SSN will not be accepted.

Who applies

The successor trustee named in the trust document. That person is the responsible party on the SS-4 and enters their own SSN or ITIN. If the trust names two or more successor trustees, one of them is the responsible party; the others do not need to appear on the form.

If you are also the executor of the estate, you will likely need a second EIN for the estate itself. How to get an EIN for an estate covers that. The two numbers are for two different taxpayers and are not interchangeable.

The Form SS-4 boxes that matter for a trust after death

• Line 1, legal name. The trust’s name exactly as it appears in the trust document, usually of the form “[Name] Revocable Living Trust dated [date]” or “[Name] Family Trust”. Not the trustee’s name, and not “Estate of”.
• Line 3, care of. The trustee’s name goes here, so that IRS mail addressed to the trust reaches a living person.
• Line 7a and 7b, responsible party. The successor trustee and their SSN or ITIN.
• Line 9a, type of entity. Tick Trust and enter the grantor’s SSN in the space beside it. Do not tick Estate.
• Line 10, reason for applying. “Created a trust”, with the type specified. For a living trust that became irrevocable at death the type is irrevocable, whatever it was called while the grantor was alive.
• Line 11, date. The instructions ask for the date the trust was funded. For a trust that has just become irrevocable, the date of death is what a reviewer expects to see and what our filings use. This is the answer trustees get wrong most often, usually by entering the date the trust was originally signed years earlier.

How to apply

The four methods and their timelines are the same as for any SS-4, and this guide compares them. Two things are specific to a trustee.

The online application asks the trust-type question in a way that is easy to answer wrong when the document says “revocable” on the cover and the grantor has just died. It accepts whatever you pick. A wrong trust type produces a valid EIN attached to the wrong kind of taxpayer, and the mismatch shows up when the 1041 is prepared.

Fax gets the form in front of a person and takes roughly four business days. It is the route to use if the online tool ends in a reference number, if the trustee has no U.S. taxpayer number, or if you would rather not answer the trust-type question against a timer.

The election that combines the trust and the estate

If there is both an estate and a trust that became irrevocable at death, the IRS allows the trustee and the executor to elect to treat the trust as part of the estate for income tax purposes for a period after death, on Form 8855. It simplifies some filings and changes others. Whether it helps depends on the specific situation and is a question for whoever prepares the 1041. It does not remove the need for the trust to have its own EIN; the election is made using it.

After the number arrives

• Give the EIN to every bank and brokerage holding trust assets so the accounts stop reporting under the deceased grantor’s SSN.
• Any interest, dividends or sale proceeds from the date of death on are the trust’s income and go on Form 1041 under the new EIN. Income before that date belongs on the grantor’s final personal return.
• Keep the IRS confirmation. If it is lost, the replacement is a 147C letter, requested by the trustee.

Quick answers

The trust already has an EIN from when it was set up. Do I need a new one?

Sometimes a revocable trust was issued an EIN while the grantor was alive, even though it did not need one. Whether that number can carry on after death, or a new one is required, depends on how it was set up and reported. Take the existing confirmation letter to whoever prepares the trust’s return before applying again; applying for a second number when the first is still valid creates its own problem.

Can I keep using the grantor’s SSN for a few months while I sort things out?

No. Income earned by the trust after death reported under a deceased person’s SSN is a mismatch the IRS will eventually query, and banks will freeze or refuse accounts in the meantime.

I am trustee of a trust for someone still living. Does this apply?

Not if the trust is still revocable by a living grantor. See revocable vs. irrevocable: which one needs an EIN.