Updated October 5, 2026. Quick answer: Yes. Rhode Island taxes trust income at graduated rates of 3.75%, 4.75% and 5.99% for 2025, and the Form RI-1041 instructions say the fiduciary of a resident estate or trust “must file a return on Form RI-1041 if the estate or trust” is required to file a federal income tax return or had any Rhode Island taxable income.
How Rhode Island treats trust income
| Item | What the documents say |
|---|---|
| Treatment | Rhode Island taxes the income of resident and nonresident estates and trusts, and the fiduciary reports it on Form RI-1041, the Fiduciary Income Tax Return. The statute imposes the personal income tax on “residents and nonresidents, including estates and trusts,” at a percentage of the federal rates that the statute sets out. |
| Who counts as a resident trust | Under the statute, a trust is resident based on the residence of the person who created it or who held the power to revoke it, and the Division says the trust is resident “only to the extent that the beneficiaries are Rhode Island resident individuals” for trusts created by will, formerly revocable trusts and irrevocable trusts. The 2025 instructions also list an electing small business trust as a resident trust. |
| Rate on trust income | The 2025 printed rate schedule for the Form RI-1041 has a section headed “ESTATES AND NONGRANTOR TRUST” with three rates, 3.75% up to $3,200 of taxable income, 4.75% from $3,200 to $10,200 and 5.99% over $10,200. |
| Distribution deduction | Rhode Island starts from federal total income on Form 1041, line 9, and line 6 of the RI-1041 subtracts the federal deductions from Form 1041 “lines 16 and 22”. Line 22 of the 2025 federal Form 1041 adds lines 18 through 21, and line 18 is the income distribution deduction, so income the trust distributes to beneficiaries comes out of the Rhode Island computation through that federal figure rather than through a separate Rhode Island line. |
| Nonresident trusts | A nonresident trust files only when it has Rhode Island source income, and one with income both inside and outside the state completes Schedules I and II to allocate it. The instructions say the fiduciary of a nonresident estate or trust files if the estate or trust “had income or gain derived from Rhode Island sources”. |
| Electing small business trusts | The Rhode Island tax on an electing small business trust is figured as the income attributable to Rhode Island “multiplied by the highest marginal income tax rate of 5.99%” on line 14c of the return. |
| Return to file | Resident and nonresident fiduciaries file Form RI-1041 with the Division of Taxation, and the instructions state “The due date is April 15, 2026 for returns filed for” the calendar year 2025. |
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, 3.75%, the tax is computed as $10,000 x 3.75% = $375; taxed wholly at the highest, 5.99%, it is computed as $10,000 x 5.99% = $599. 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 Rhode Island taxes retirement income, whether Rhode Island taxes pensions, what a living trust costs in Rhode Island, federal trust tax brackets, and trust income tax by state.
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Answer againSources
- 2025 RI-1041 Fiduciary Income Tax Return General Instructions (Rhode Island Division of Taxation): https://tax.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur541/files/2026-01/2025 RI-1041 Instructions.pdf
- 2025 RI-1041 Tax Rate Schedules and Computation Worksheet (Rhode Island Division of Taxation): https://tax.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur541/files/2026-01/2025 1041 Tax Rate Worksheet.pdf
- R.I. Gen. Laws 44-30-5, Resident and nonresident defined (Rhode Island General Assembly): https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE44/44-30/44-I/44-30-5.htm
- R.I. Gen. Laws 44-30-2.6, Rhode Island taxable income and rate of tax (Rhode Island General Assembly): https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE44/44-30/44-I/44-30-2.6.htm
- Fiduciary Tax Filing Requirements (Rhode Island Division of Taxation): https://tax.ri.gov/tax-sections/personal-income-tax/fiduciary-tax-filing-requirements
- 2025 Form RI-1041 Fiduciary Income Tax Return (Rhode Island Division of Taxation): https://tax.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur541/files/2026-01/2025 RI-1041_w.pdf
- R.I. Gen. Laws 44-30-16, Rhode Island income of a resident estate or trust (Rhode Island General Assembly): https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE44/44-30/44-II/44-30-16.htm
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.