Trust paying wages-taxable?

[mainer]

Hi Mustachians,
My husband is a beneficiary of a trust account. He's doing work on a house that is in the trust. Getting hourly wages paid out by the trust. Anyone know if there is any way to receive that income without getting taxed on it? Thank you!!

[secondcor521]

The only two ways I know of are:

1.  Make the amount so small that it doesn't result in a tax liability.  If your husband or you have regular jobs in addition to the house work, this amount is probably about $0.  If you have no other jobs, it could be up to about $12.4K (the MFJ standard deduction amount for 2019).

2.  Don't report it.  This is illegal, so I would not recommend this option.  Plus, you're likely to get caught if the trust does its taxes properly, because it should report the wages paid on its return, and the IRS matching computers would catch the discrepancy.

[mainer]

Thank you!