Trust Return Does the income have to be distributed on a K1?

[dsg]

I have a client who is the trustee of a trust. The name of the owner of the trust is now deceased. Can the taxes be assessed to the trust or does it need to be passed to the trustee on a K1? When I input everything, it is wanting me to distribute the income on the K1. My client wants the trust to pay the taxes. If the trust can pay the taxes via the trust return, how would I do that? Thank you, 

[sjrcpa]

Simple Trust must distribute the income.

Complex trust can distribute the income according to the trust provisions.

What kind of trust do you have?

Were distributions actually made?

Capital gains are usually corpus and the trust pays tax on them.

[BobKamman]

I think the question is:  Distributions were made, what do I do now, since some of these beneficiaries were not told to expect a K-1 and they have already filed their returns.

The answer is:  The trust can't pay the tax.  The beneficiaries must. 

Sometimes you can play around with the capital gains, but the rest of the income flows through.  

[qbteachmt]

"or does it need to be passed to the trustee"

Beneficiaries. The Trustee does the work.