Can a Trust be Simple one tax year and Complex another year?

[AZ-Tax]

Trust docs instruct Trustee to make payments to beneficiary(bene) when bene reaches certain ages which are about every 5 years. At first this sounds like a Complex trust then reading IRS instructions, in the tax years the payment(s) were made to the bene, Trust is a Simple trust. Does that sound correct?

[Gretel]

Maybe. Here are the rules, if income needs to be distributed to heirs and NO principle is distributed, then it is a simple trust. Otherwise it is a complex trust, and yes, I could be different every year. Be careful if you have capital gains that are most of the time considered to be applied against principle.

[Burke]

A simple trust does not become a complex trust just because it directs corpus to be paid to beneficiaries at a certain age. The key is whether the trustee has the right and discretion to invade principal at other times due to circumstances provided for in the trust document, such as medical, education, general health and welfare, etc. If it says income only and the trustee does not have this discretion, then it remains a simple trust. It does not change from one year to the next just because a bene comes of age. Most trusts are complex trusts, but there are simple trusts out there.