Has the United States Supreme Court (a/k/a the united States supreme Court) ever ruled on the income taxation of these "pure" trusts? As a matter of fact it has. And our pure-trust pals won't like the answer. Back in 1924, in a case called Hecht v. Malley, 265 U.S. 144 (1924), the Supreme Court poo-pooed the idea that a pure trust was exempt from the federal income tax. The Supreme Court held that a so-called "pure trust" that was not organized under any statute was nevertheless taxes as a corporation, because it looked like a corporation, acted like a corporation, smelled like a corporation, etc.

I wonder why the pure-trust folks have never read Hecht v. Malley? They love to lift sentences in those old cases out of context.

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