New Hampshire trust tax and reporting

Residency and what it changes

Tax follows residency, and the trust, the settlor and each beneficiary can be resident in different places.

A New Hampshire trust with a settlor in one country and beneficiaries in two others can be tested in all three.

State tax on trust income depends on where the trustee, settlor and beneficiaries are resident; your tax adviser confirms the position for your case.

The state tax authority’s current pages are the place to check how state rules treat trust income and inheritances.

Federal tax is separate from state tax. A non-US settlor is treated differently from a US citizen or resident, which is why the trustee asks for tax residence and citizenship at the start.

The overview shows where this question sits in the set-up.

FATCA and account reporting

Two systems move account information, FATCA (the US system) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) used by other countries; the United States reports under FATCA, not CRS, and your lawyer confirms how this applies to your trust.

Under FATCA, a foreign financial institution reports accounts held by US persons or faces withholding on certain payments (source: Internal Revenue Service: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)).

Which system applies to a given account depends on how the trust and its bank are classified. The bank’s own forms settle that, and your adviser checks the result.

What does not change is the trustee’s practice: it collects self-certification forms of tax residence from the settlor, the protector, the beneficiaries and other controlling persons.

It also keeps records so that a bank or an authority can be answered quickly.

Reporting by the trustee and when

In a New Hampshire structure the reporting follows the offices the deed creates. The trustee’s work falls into three groups:

• Account information. Tax residence forms from the settlor and from each trust advisor or protector, kept for the bank’s reporting.
• Fiduciary tax returns. Returns the trust itself files, prepared by a US tax professional where needed.
• Your reports. An annual account and asset report sent to you, and the figures your own adviser needs for your tax return.

Where the deed gives an advisor or protector powers over the trust, the trustee records who used them, so your adviser can see which change came from whom.

A beneficiary who lives outside the United States reports on the home-country side. A distribution can count as income or as a gift there, and the trustee cannot file that return for them.

Dates depend on the trust’s tax year and on each filing. Your quote lists the reporting that the yearly fee covers.

Your own tax position

Your own tax position turns on your residence, your citizenship and your assets, so it belongs with your adviser.

Tell the adviser which of these the structure uses: an irrevocable trust with a spendthrift provision for the settlor, a trust advisor or protector with powers, or a foundation formed by certificate.

Each is a design choice the adviser needs to see, and we state no tax result for any of them.

For a non-US settlor, the estate files Form 706-NA when US-situated assets exceed the IRS threshold at death (source: Internal Revenue Service: Some nonresidents with U.S. assets must file estate tax returns).

US real estate and US company shares are examples of such assets. The IRS tells executors to check estate tax treaties, which can change the position.

A trust does not remove reporting duties and is not a route around tax rules. Ask your adviser three questions:

1. Which country, and which US state if any, treats the trust as resident for tax?
2. Which home countries of the settlor or a beneficiary tax income or gifts from the trust?
3. Do US real estate or US company shares sit in the structure?

Bring the draft deed, the list of assets with their locations, and the tax residence of the settlor and each beneficiary. With those, an adviser can answer most of these questions in one meeting.

Ask the adviser to put the conclusions in writing.

The trustee can then align its reporting calendar with the filings your advisers expect, and the records the trustee keeps, your own filings and any bank questionnaires stay consistent from one year to the next.

Sources and review dates

The facts above come from the Internal Revenue Service and the New Hampshire Revised Statutes, with sources dated 2026-11-05. We review them when the rules or the official pages change.

Compare how another place handles tax with the comparison tool, read the set-up guide or look at the law and features page and the cost guide.

Tell us what you are planning and ask for a quote.