Family Trust Election (FTE)
Context and Why This Exists
In Australian tax practice, a Family Trust Election helps define a trust's family group for family trust distribution tax (FTDT) rules. Recording the election clearly is important for annual compliance work, distribution decisions, and understanding which related elections can be made by other entities in the structure.
Without a clear FTE record, teams often lose context between years: who the specified individual is, which year the election applies from, and whether the election is still active.
StructureGram gives you one place to track this election state and history so your trust structure model reflects compliance-critical facts over time.
Important: This page is operational guidance for recording data in StructureGram. It is not legal or tax advice.
What the Feature Does
StructureGram records FTE data inside the entity record, including:
- Election status (for example, elected, revoked, unknown)
- Effective income year
- Election and revocation dates
- Specified individual (where set)
- Change history entries with date and note
In the current in-app workflow:
- Trust detail pages include a full Family Trust Election section.
- Company detail pages currently focus on IEE in the Tax Elections UI.
- Partnerships do not support FTE.
If your diagram display settings enable FTE Badge, entities with an active FTE show an FTE icon on ownership diagram nodes.
How to Use It
- Open the relevant trust.
- In the trust details area, open Tax Elections.
- Select the Family Trust Election card and choose Set up or Edit.
- Set the election status.
- Enter the effective income year (year ending 30 June).
- Enter election date or revocation date as required by status.
- Select the specified individual if needed.
- Add a short note describing why this change is being made.
- Save and confirm the summary row and history table are updated.
To show FTE status on diagrams:
- Open an ownership diagram.
- Open Diagram Settings.
- Under node detail options, turn on FTE Badge.
- Confirm eligible entities with active FTE now show the FTE icon.
Edge Cases and Expected Behavior
Partnerships cannot hold an FTE
- Partnerships can use IEE tracking, but cannot be set as having a Family Trust Election.
Status changes can clear FTE details
- If you change status to Unknown or Not Elected, the app clears election-specific data fields (such as year, dates, and specified individual).
Revoking an FTE affects linked IEEs
- When a trust FTE is revoked, linked IEEs that reference that trust are automatically invalidated.
Effective income year is validated
- Financial years are validated in Australian format (
YYYY-YYat storage level, shown as year-ending format in the form).
Diagram icons are optional display settings
- FTE icons do not appear unless FTE Badge is enabled in diagram settings.
Troubleshooting (Q&A)
I cannot find FTE editing on this entity
Most likely causes:
- You are on a partnership, which does not support FTE.
- You are on a surface that currently exposes IEE only.
Fix:
- Open the trust entity detail page.
- Use the Tax Elections section there.
My FTE icon is not visible on the diagram
Most likely causes:
- FTE Badge is turned off in diagram settings.
- The election is not currently active.
Fix:
- Turn on FTE Badge in Diagram Settings.
- Check the election status in the trust's Tax Elections section.
I set an FTE but related IEEs now show problems
Most likely cause:
- The FTE year or status changed in a way that now conflicts with related IEE records.
Fix:
- Review linked IEE records on affected entities.
- Update effective years and statuses to align with the parent trust's active FTE state.
Best Practice
Treat FTE updates as controlled compliance events:
- Confirm election status and effective year from source documents.
- Record the specified individual and note the reason for change.
- Review linked IEE records immediately after any FTE revocation or year change.
- Enable FTE and IEE badges in ownership diagrams during review periods so exceptions are visible in context.