Fiduciary services
Trust and estate tax services
Fiduciary income tax, gift and estate returns, and the accounting that keeps an administration clean enough to close.
What you get
- Form 1041, Form 709 and Form 706
- Fiduciary accounting an executor can hand over
- K-1s issued to beneficiaries
- Basis and valuation coordinated
The MyCleverCPA team
- 25+ years in regulated finance, compliance and audit
- Tax work led by a CPA. Jillian Sinel holds the CPA and the CAA
- Three New York offices, or work with us fully remote
Overview
Fiduciary returns filed in the right order
Trust and estate matters arrive with their own deadlines, their own forms and usually a family that would rather be dealing with something else. The work is mostly sequencing: getting the right return filed at the right time with numbers that reconcile.
On the East End in particular, estates often hold real property, and the transfer picture matters. The Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund transfer tax runs at 2.5% in East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island and Southold, made up of 2% for the preservation fund and 0.5% for the community housing fund added in April 2023.
The allowance is the part that is widely misunderstood. There is a $400,000 allowance on improved residential property and $100,000 on unimproved land, but only where the consideration is $2,000,000 or less. Above that there is no allowance at all and the full 2.5% applies from the first dollar. Given typical East End values, a large share of real transactions sit above the cap.
Scope
What is included in trusts and estates
Work is scoped to what you actually need. In most engagements it covers:
Income tax returns
- Form 1041 for estates and trusts
- The final Form 1040 for the decedent
- New York fiduciary returns
Transfer tax returns
- Form 709 for lifetime gifts
- Form 706 where a federal estate return is required
- New York State estate tax returns
Fiduciary accounting
- Principal and income accounting
- Beneficiary reporting and K-1s
- Records a beneficiary or a court can review
Administration support
- Basis and valuation coordination
- Working alongside the estate attorney
- Distributions timed with the tax year in mind
What this covers
- Estate and trust income tax returns, Form 1041
- Gift tax returns, Form 709
- Estate tax returns, Form 706
- Fiduciary accounting
- Trust administration support
- Beneficiary reporting and K-1s
- Estate and succession planning support
- Basis and valuation coordination
Problems we fix
What usually brings people to this work
These cost money quietly, and they get more expensive the longer they sit.
A first-time executor
Named in a will, and now responsible for returns nobody has explained.
Filings already late
Penalties on a fiduciary return land on the estate, and sometimes on the fiduciary.
Basis nobody recorded
Property sold years later with no record of its value at the date of death.
Money distributed too early
Funds paid out before the tax is settled are funds somebody has to ask for back.
Who it is for
Who uses trusts and estates
If you recognize yourself in one of these, a short call is usually enough to tell whether this is the right service.
Executors and administrators
Someone who was named and now has to actually carry it out.
Trustees
Ongoing trusts that need an annual return and a clean set of accounts.
Families planning ahead
Gifts, basis and succession decisions taken while there is still room to make them.
Estate attorneys
Counsel who want the tax and accounting side handled properly alongside the legal work.
How it works
How trusts and estates runs
Four stages. Most of the value sits in the first two, before anything is filed.
Fix the dates
Date of death, the fiscal year choice available to the estate, and what each one triggers.
Inventory and value
Assets, basis and the valuations every later return will rest on.
File in the right order
The final 1040, then the 1041, then the 706 or 709 where they apply.
Account, then close
Fiduciary accounting and K-1s, so the administration can actually be closed out.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Does an estate always need to file?
Not always. Whether a Form 1041 is required depends on the income the estate generates and whether there is a nonresident alien beneficiary. We would rather check than assume, because the penalty for a missed fiduciary return compounds.
I am the executor and I have never done this. Where do I start?
With an inventory and the date of death values, because almost everything else depends on them. We work alongside the estate attorney rather than replacing them.
Do you prepare gift tax returns?
Yes. Form 709 is often worth filing even when no tax is due, because it starts the clock and documents the valuation position.
Other services
Our other services
01
Tax Preparation and Planning
Individual, business, partnership and multi-state returns, prepared with the planning done before December rather than after.
Tax services02
Bookkeeping and Accounting
General ledgers, reconciliations, payroll and financial statements, kept current enough to make decisions from.
Accounting services04
Nonprofit
Form 990 and the annual reporting that keeps tax-exempt status intact, for boards that would rather be doing the work.
Nonprofit services05
IRS Representation
Notices, audit support, back taxes and collection matters, handled so you are not the one on the phone.
RepresentationTrusts and Estates by area
Talk to us about trusts and estates
Book a time online, or call whichever office is nearest you.
Areas served
Brooklyn, the north Bronx, lower Westchester and the East End, plus remote clients across New York and multiple states.
Phone
(929) 389-1009 Brooklyn
(929) 262-6375 Riverdale
(516) 845-9969 Hamptons
Office hours
Sunday to Friday, 11am to 8pm Eastern.
Closed Saturday.