How do you know what state has jurisdiction over your trust? The answer is that a trust needs sufficient contacts between the trust and the state for the courts of that state to have jurisdiction. New York has jurisdiction over a trust under SCPA Section 2017(1). This would mean there needs to be either assets in the state, a grantor domiciled in the state, or an acting trustee residing in NY. Furthermore NY can only tax a trust if it as testamentary trust under a will of a New York domiciliary, an irrevocable inter-vivos (lifetime) trust created by a NY domiciliary, or a revocable trust that became irrevocable, when the grantor is a NY domiciliary. However a safe harbor exists to avoid NY taxation if the trustees are not NY domiciliaries, and no real or tangible property is located in NY, and all trust income is derived or connected to sources outside New York.