Quick question - When a cash deposit greater than 10,000 is made to a Living Trust by the trustee do I include the Trust in Part 1 (c - person on whose behalf transaction was conducted)
and the trustee also in Part 1 checking box(b - Person conducting transaction for another) or checking box (a - Person conducting transaction on own behalf)

Thank you - I am so confused!!

I spoke with our auditor a couple of weeks ago on this and he said yes - that's exactly how you do it. The trust is the person on whose behalf and the trustee is person conducting for another.

Although the trustee cannot generally be assumed to benefit from a deposit to the trust, that's exactly the assumption that FinCEN makes. Your conclusion is supported by the guidance they have given in the past.

The thinking behind FinCEN's guidance may be based on the fact that it's not necessary that the "person on whose behalf the transaction is conducted" actually benefit from the transaction. A trustee has a duty to deposit funds belonging to the trust, and completing the deposit discharges that responsibility; thus, the deposit can be said to be made on behalf of the trustee, as well as on behalf of the trust itself.

If the trustee is the conductor of the transaction, the Trust is included in the CTR using box 2c and the trustee is included using box 2a, because 2a trumps 2b when both apply to the role of the conductor.