I’m running into some confusion with the IRS online EIN application for a trust and hoping someone here can sanity check this…called the IRS and they were no help.
Scenario:
Client had a revocable living trust (NJ) and recently passed away. The trust is now irrevocable, and we’re applying for a new EIN.
Issue:
The online EIN application only asks for:
• Responsible party
• Trustee
From my understanding, the responsible party should be a living individual (typically the successor/acting trustee), which makes sense. The trustee section is straightforward.
However, at the end of the application, the person listed as the responsible party is displayed as the “grantor.” That seems off, because the actual grantor is the deceased individual.
The only way I’ve found to have the deceased grantor reflected is to input their info under “responsible party,” but that doesn’t seem correct either since they’re no longer living and can’t serve in that role.
Questions:
For a post-death irrevocable trust EIN, who should properly be listed as the responsible party?
Is the IRS system just mislabeling the responsible party as “grantor” on the confirmation page?
Are we expected to input the deceased grantor anywhere in the EIN application, or is that simply not captured in the online flow?
Any best practices here (or reasons to avoid the online application and just fax Form SS-4 instead)?