Which of the following is a mandatory characteristic of a QDOT?

• A. The surviving spouse must be a U.S. citizen.
• B. The trust must have at least one trustee who is a U.S. citizen or domestic corporation who can withhold estate tax on distributions of principal.
• C. The trust must prohibit distributions of income to the surviving spouse.
• D. The trust must terminate within 10 years of the decedent's death.

Answer: (B)

A QDOT is used to defer estate tax when the surviving spouse is not a U.S. citizen, and a must-have feature is that the trust has a trustee who is a U.S. citizen or a domestic corporation that can withhold the estate tax on distributions of principal. This setup gives the IRS a clear mechanism to collect any owed tax while allowing the surviving spouse to benefit from the trust, which is why tax withholding capability by a qualifying trustee is mandatory.

The other aspects described aren’t required features of every QDOT: the surviving spouse doesn’t have to be a noncitizen (though noncitizen status is when a QDOT is typically needed), income distributions aren’t obligatorily prohibited, and there isn’t a universal rule that the trust must terminate within a fixed number of years.