Updated October 5, 2026. Quick answer: Yes. Missouri taxes trust income: the 2025 MO-1041 instructions require a return from every resident estate or trust that must file a federal Form 1041, and the 2025 graduated rates run from 2.0% to 4.7%.
How Missouri treats trust income
| Item | What the documents say |
|---|---|
| Treatment | Missouri requires fiduciary income tax returns from every resident estate or trust that is required to file a federal Form 1041, and from nonresident ones with Missouri source income. |
| Who counts as a resident trust | The statute defines a resident trust by the domicile of the person who created it or whose property it holds, together with a Missouri resident income beneficiary. The source says: “Was created by, or consisting of property of, a person domiciled” in this state on the date the trust or portion of the trust became irrevocable, and has at least one resident income beneficiary on the last day of the taxable year. |
| Rate on trust income | The 2025 chart applies graduated rates from 2.0% to 4.7% to Missouri taxable income, with a $0 tax on the first bracket. The source says: “$256 plus 4.7% of the excess over $9,191” is the printed tax on the top bracket. |
| Distribution deduction | The return starts from federal taxable income, which is the amount on Federal Form 1041 Line 23, and the instructions do not describe a separate Missouri distribution deduction. |
| Nonresident trusts | A nonresident estate or trust files when it has any taxable income from sources within Missouri or gross income of $600 or more from sources within Missouri, and a nonresident with both Missouri and other income completes Form MO-NRF. |
| Return to file | Resident and nonresident trusts file Missouri Form MO-1041, and a nonresident estate or trust with income from both Missouri and non-Missouri sources attaches Form MO-NRF. |
| Federal tax deduction | The return subtracts a federal income tax deduction computed on Form 5802 before arriving at Missouri taxable income. The source says: “Federal income tax deduction (from Form 5802, Part 1, Line 8b)” is Line 2 of the return. |
A $10,000 example
The tax on $10,000 of taxable income a trust keeps depends on the bracket it lands in. Taxed wholly at the lowest printed rate, 2.0%, the tax is computed as $10,000 x 2.0% = $200; taxed wholly at the highest, 4.7%, it is computed as $10,000 x 4.7% = $470. The state’s own schedule decides which applies. Federal tax on the trust’s income still applies.
Income the trust passes out to a beneficiary is handled as the distribution deduction row above describes.
What changes in 2026
The latest documents read print no 2026 change to how trust income is taxed.
Federal rules
The state’s treatment sits on top of the federal one. The federal brackets a trust faces are laid out in trust tax brackets versus individual brackets, and capital gains that a trust keeps are covered in capital gains stay in the trust. The IRS explains the federal return in the About Form 1041 page.
Related: how Missouri taxes retirement income, whether Missouri taxes pensions, what a living trust costs in Missouri, and federal trust tax brackets.
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Answer againSources
- 2025 Form MO-1041 Fiduciary Income Tax Return and Instructions (Missouri Department of Revenue): https://dor.mo.gov/forms/MO-1041_2025.pdf
- RSMo Section 143.331, Resident estate or trust defined (Missouri Revisor of Statutes): https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=143.331
- RSMo Section 143.011, Resident individuals, tax rates (Missouri Revisor of Statutes): https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=143.011
Sources: the primary documents linked above, read on October 5, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the plan administrator or the agency itself is the right place to confirm anything consequential.