In Filing Year 2010, nearly 119,000 Split-Interest Trust Information Returns (Form 5227) were filed for charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts and pooled income funds, according to the IRS' Statistics of Income Bulletin: Winter 2012.
In its report, the SOI said split-interest trust filers reported a total of $8 billion in gross income and $121 billion in end-of-year assets. Corporate stock accounted for the majority of assets held by split-interest trusts. Total net income reported on Form 5227 declined by 81% between 2009 and 2010.
Form 5227 is used to disclose a trust's financial activities, not to calculate its tax liability. The filings covered mainly Tax Year 2009.
The SOI Bulletin said that trustees of charitable remainder trusts filed 110,768 returns, accounting for 93.2% of split-interest trusts in 2010. With this type of trust, an income stream is distributed annually to one or more non-charitable beneficiaries for a defined period, with remaining assets after the trust is dissolved going to predetermined charitable beneficiaries.
