I need to change the name of a trust so that it matches with what the IRS has for the EIN. I cannot find where it will let me change the name in the program.

[sjrcpa]

Do you mean the NAME Control?

[rbynaker]

Another victim of IRS turning on name control matching this year.  What a great year for them to force people to paper file 1041s.

I've heard trial and error might be the best approach.  You can try calling but I've heard on other lists that the "help" line isn't allowed to give out this info over the phone.  The best you might get is someone who will confirm it if you guess right.

Some resources I'm stealing from another forum (but the conclusion there was that the IRS is inconsistent and their name control rules have changed over time so it depends on when the trust was created):

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/using-the-correct-name-control-in-e-filing-corporate-tax...

Q6/A6 has the phone number.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4163.pdf

Start reading at the very bottom of page 37 (jump to PDF page 49, the page numbering is off).  Page 41 talks about trusts.

Are we having fun yet?

Rick

[sjrcpa]

I've been telling people it is the first 4 letters of the person's last name  - i.e The John Smith Revocable Trust = SMIT. That's always how it used to be.

But, I just looked at an EIN letter from November 2021. The name control for The John Smith Revocable Trust is JOHN.

[sherrih0123]

Yes. I found out in the end, this is what was needed. I assumed that name control meant the name of the trust and that I needed it to match the name on the EIN letter. Your advise below about using the first four letters is what the name control is and which first four letters depends. For the trust return I filed, it picked the first four letters of the last name and this may have been because the first name was only three letters long.

I was able to get the IRS on the phone finally and he was very pleasant to talk to. He is the one who straightened me out explaining that the name control is different than the trust's name and he had given me three suggested name controls to try. His first suggestion worked and I was jumping up and down for joy.

As far as where to find the name control in the system, with ProConnect's help I found out it is under Input Return then over to the left under General you select Electronic Filing and Name control [Override] is listed.

They say patience is a virtue and walking through this whole process sure imparted patience in me! Your help and suggestions were appreciated. I simply didn't know enough to use them!