The Ninety-Ten Split for Natural Resources
Natural resources are unique trust assets. Unlike stocks or bonds, extracting minerals or pumping water reduces what is left for future beneficiaries. Arizona accounts for this by directing the bulk of receipts to principal.
If an amount received as a royalty, shut-in-well payment, take-or-pay payment, bonus or delay rental is more than nominal, ninety per cent must be allocated to principal and the balance to income.
A.R.S. § 14-7420(A)(3)The same ninety-ten split applies to receipts from working interests and other interests not specifically covered by the statute's other categories. Nominal delay rentals and nominal annual rent on a lease, however, go entirely to income.
Water Rights and Renewable vs. Non-Renewable Distinctions
Arizona's approach to water rights recognizes a practical reality. Renewable water sources, such as wells that replenish naturally, generate receipts that go entirely to income. Non-renewable water follows the same ninety-ten principal-income split as minerals.
The statute applies regardless of whether the person who created the trust was already extracting resources before the trust was established. For trusts that owned resource interests before this article took effect, the trustee has a choice: apply the new rules or continue the method used previously. Trusts that acquire resource interests after the effective date must follow the statutory allocation.
Production payments receive their own treatment. To the extent the agreement includes a factor for interest, that portion goes to income. The balance goes to principal.
