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During your lifetime, there are no income-tax savings attributable to earnings of the trust. Because you retain total control over the assets and can revoke the trust anytime you want, you are taxed on all the income (on your personal tax return if you are the trustee).

No separate tax return will be necessary for a Revocable Living Trust. However, even though the Grantor is taxed on the Trust income, the assets are legally held by the Trust, which will survive the Grantor's death. That is why the assets in the Trust do not need to go through the probate process.

During your lifetime, there are no income-tax savings attributable to earnings of the trust. Because you retain total control over the assets and can revoke the trust anytime you want, you are taxed on all the income (on your personal tax return if you are the trustee).

The primary advantage of a revocable trust is to avoid probate. Probate is a proceeding that occurs typically when an individual passes away. The probate process is something that can be long and costly, and so by having a revocable trust you can avoid the probate process in its entirety.

One type of trust that will protect your assets from your creditors is called an irrevocable trust. Once you establish an irrevocable trust, you no longer legally own the assets you used to fund it and can no longer control how those assets are distributed.

Bottom line is a living trust is much more of an estate planning tool than an asset protection tool. It is not a place to hide money, or to protect it.

The living trust does not pay income tax on income that is distributed to the trust beneficiaries during the tax year. The beneficiaries pay income tax on the income they receive from the trust. If the living trust does not distribute all of its income, it must pay income tax on the undistributed income.