The Supreme Court has held that investment advisory fees paid by a trust were deductible only to the extent that they exceeded 2% of the trust’s adjusted gross income (AGI). Thus, such expenses didn’t qualify for the exception to the 2% of AGI limit in the tax law for costs paid or incurred in connection with the administration of a trust or estate that wouldn’t have been incurred if the property weren’t held in the trust or estate. However, for the sake of administrative convenience, the IRS has provided that, until final regulations are issued, nongrantor trusts and estates will not have to “unbundle” a fiduciary fee (i.e., separate the fee into components that are subject to the deduction limit and those that aren’t). As a result, until the regulations are issued, affected taxpayers can deduct the full amount of a bundled fiduciary fee without regard to the 2% floor.
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