In 2010, Congress enacted the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, creating new IRC § 1411, which imposes a 3.8% surtax on the net investment income of individuals, estates, and trusts. In December 2012, the IRS issued proposed regulations that included a method (the Simplified Method) for charitable remainder trust (CRT) trustees to capture and report net investment income to the trust's non-charitable income beneficiaries. Final regulations issued in December 2013 took a different approach, but in new proposed regulations issued at the same time, the Simplified Method was retained as an alternative election.

The Simplified Method works as a complement to the pre-existing "four-tier" structure used by CRTs for income tax reporting. Under the Simplified Method, all net investment income (NII) received after December 31, 2012, is aggregated on a cumulative basis and distributed before excluded income. A trustee should consider electing the Simplified Method when the trust's income beneficiaries do not meet the applicable modified adjusted gross income threshold or when the trust has realized or realizable capital losses coupled with a short expected remaining term.