Updated October 5, 2026. Quick answer: Yes. Maine taxes trust income at graduated rates of 5.8%, 6.75% and 7.15%, and the Form 1041ME instructions require a return from “The fiduciary or trustee of a resident or nonresident estate or trust” trust with Maine taxable income greater than zero or gross income of $10,000 or more.
How Maine treats trust income
| Item | What the documents say |
|---|---|
| Treatment | Maine taxes the income of resident and nonresident estates and trusts through Form 1041ME, and grantor trusts and charitable remainder trusts are excused from filing. In the source’s words, “Grantor Trusts and all Charitable Remainder Trusts are not” required to file a Maine return. |
| Who counts as a resident trust | Residency turns on the domicile of the person who created the trust or whose property it holds, not on the trustee or the place of administration. In the source’s words, “A resident irrevocable inter vivos trust is a trust which was created” by or consisted of property of a person domiciled in Maine at the time it was funded. |
| Resident testamentary and revocable trusts | A trust created by the will of a decedent domiciled in Maine at death is resident, and a revocable inter vivos trust is resident while its settlor is domiciled in Maine, until the settlor becomes domiciled in another state. |
| Rate on trust income | The 2025 tax table taxes Maine taxable income below $26,800 at 5.8%, adds 6.75% on the excess over $26,800 up to $63,450, and applies 7.15% on the excess over $63,450. The source says: “This tax rate schedule is effective for tax years beginning in 2025.” The table is printed on the Form 1041ME instructions for line 4. |
| Distribution deduction | The Form 1041ME instructions read do not describe a Maine income distribution deduction. Resident estates and trusts start from federal taxable income on Form 1041 and adjust it by a fiduciary adjustment, and the adjustment is shared among beneficiaries in proportion to their shares of federal distributable net income. |
| Nonresident trusts | A nonresident trust files when it has both distributable net income from Maine sources and gross income of $10,000 or more. The instructions state that “The Maine-source income of a nonresident estate or trust” is determined on Form 1041ME, Schedule NR. |
| Return to file | Resident and nonresident estates and trusts file Form 1041ME, and a completed copy of federal Form 1041 must accompany the nonresident return. The due date for 2025 returns is April 15, 2026. |
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, 5.8%, the tax is computed as $10,000 x 5.8% = $580; taxed wholly at the highest, 7.15%, it is computed as $10,000 x 7.15% = $715. 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 Maine taxes retirement income, whether Maine taxes pensions, what a living trust costs in Maine, federal trust tax brackets, and trust income tax by state.
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Answer againSources
- Form 1041ME General Instructions, 2025 (Maine Revenue Services): https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/25_1041me_gen_instr_w_cover_pg.pdf
- 36 M.R.S. 5102 Definitions (Maine Legislature): https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/36/title36sec5102.html
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.