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Determining the Name Control for Form 1041 in ProSeries Professional

by Intuit• Updated 11 months ago

The IRS recently changed the name control requirements for certain 1041 filers, meaning you may have been able to e-file a trust's return using a certain name control in prior years, however the same name control may not be accepted on new filings.

How do I know what name control to use?

For most estates and trusts, there are three ways to find the correct name control for e-filing:

On the original IRS notice CP 575B, which the estate or trust received when their EIN was assigned
By computing the entity's name control following the rules in IRS Pub. 4164
By contacting the IRS Business Specialty Tax Line at 1-800-829-4933

To find the name control on CP 575B:

The Name Control appears on a tear-off tab attached to the notice.

If you don't have that portion of the form, reference the top of the second page. You should see a string similar to the following example:

(IRS USE ONLY) 575B 10-31- 2008 NAME B 9999999999 SS-4

The Name Control is the four letters directly following the date in this string. In this example, the Name Control is "NAME".

Or, if you filed successfully through ProSeries Professional last year, follow these steps to find the Name Control:

Open the client return in last year's program.
Open the Fiduciary Information Worksheet.
Make note of the Special Name Control for EF listed.

To compute the name control using IRS rules:

The Name Control consists of up to four alpha and/or numeric characters from the entity's name. The ampersand and hyphen are the only special characters allowed in the Name Control. The Name Control doesn't include acronyms like "dba" or "fbo".

For estates:

The Name Control is the first four characters of the deceased individual's last name.

For trusts and fiduciaries:

Trust and fiduciary Name Control rules vary depending on whether the EIN assigned to the trust was obtained online or through a paper application process.

If the trust's EIN begins with 20, 26, 27, or 45, then the trust obtained its EIN online and should follow option A. All others should follow option B.

A. For trusts with an EIN obtained online

The Name Control is the first four characters of the first name of the trust or organization, ignoring leading terms like "Trust for". Examples:

Jonathan Periwinkle Memory Church Irrevocable Trust has Name Control "JONA".
Trust for the benefit of Bob Jones has Name Control "BOBJ".

B. For trusts with an EIN obtained by paper

For trusts with an EIN obtained by paper, the first four letters of the individual's last name are typically used. Follow these guidelines to determine the correct four letters:

For trusts named after an individual, the Name Control is created from the first four characters of the individual's last name. Example:
- Michael T. Azalea Revocable Trust has Name Control "AZAL"
For numbered trusts, use the first four digits of the trust number, disregarding any leading zeros and trailing alphas.
Don't include the words "Trust" or "Fund" or phrases such as "Trust for" or "Irrevocable Trust".
For corporations set up as trusts, the first four characters of the corporate name are used. Do not use "the" at the beginning of a business name. Examples:
- Sunflower Company Employee Benefit Trust has Name Control "SUNF".
- The Willow Company has Name Control "WILL".

Where do I enter the name control?

The Name Control Override field is at the very top of the Fiduciary Information Worksheet, in the Special Name Control for EF field.

Additional resources and examples

Name Control	Name Control Rule	Rule
Sumac Field Plow Inc. 11th Street Inc. P & P Company Y-Z Drive Co ZZZ Club John HackberryPA ELM OAK! Tree	SUMA 11TH P&PC Y-ZD ZZZC JOHN ELM OAKT	Derive the name control from the first four characters of the corporation's name. Blanks may be present only at the end of the name control.

For additional IRS examples: Publication 1586, page 17.

If you can't determine the correct Name Control, contact the Business Specialty Tax Line at 1-800-829-4933.

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