Trust Stipulations

• When an individual sets up a trust, a trustee takes charge of the assets inside it. Once the person who created the trust passes away, the assets in the trust will be distributed according to the stipulations that were created by the owner of the trust. Money cannot be donated to a jury from a trust unless the person who started the trust allowed it in the terms. Because of this, not many trusts get charitable deductions.
  
  

Offsetting Income

• When a trust does make a charitable contribution, it can take a deduction only if it makes money for the year. The trust will only be able to offset any income that it has generated. This means that the trust must have some type of income-producing assets such as stocks or bonds. The charitable contributions can then offset the amount of money that is earned by the trust. The owner or beneficiary cannot take the deductions for his personal tax return.
  
  

Filing Tax Return

• When you have a trust that earns income, it will have to have a Form 1041 filed for it. This is the tax return form for estates and trusts. When this document is filled out, you will also need to fill out a Schedule A form. This includes information about the charitable contributions that the trust made. The information from line 7 on Schedule A will be transported to Line 13 on the Form 1041.
  
  

Proof of Contribution

• When a contribution is made to a charity, the trust will need to get documentation that it was made. This could include a receipt or statement from that charitable organization. This receipt or document does not need to be included with the tax return, but it will be necessary if the tax return is audited. If the Internal Revenue Service chooses that return to audit, it could disallow the deduction if proof is not provided.