The election · Division 6F
Trust election to stay outside the proposed 30% minimum tax: the excluded election trust.
The Bill offers families a way to keep the trust and step outside the minimum tax without moving a single asset. The price is the discretion. A trust that makes the election nominates its beneficiaries and fixes each one's share of income and capital, and from then on distributes exactly that, every year, until a nominated person dies or a relationship ends. It is the cheaper path in Victoria and the less forgiving one.
Lawyer-led structuring
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Alongside your accountant
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Fixed fee, quoted first
Quoted before any work starts, with duty, searches and ASIC costs itemised separately.
Property and duty in-house
Victorian duty, land tax and the property transfers handled by the same firm.
The 30% minimum tax on discretionary trusts is before Parliament and is not yet law. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 3) Bill 2026 and the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Minimum Tax on Discretionary Trusts) Bill 2026 were introduced on 14 October 2026. As introduced, the tax would apply from 1 July 2028 and the restructure roll-over would run from 1 July 2027 to 30 June 2030. The detail may change before enactment. Last reviewed 27 October 2026.
Division 6F
A fixed-share election, made once.
Under proposed Division 6F of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, a trust in existence on 1 July 2028 may elect to be an excluded election trust. The trustee nominates beneficiaries and specifies each one's percentage of the trust's income and of its capital. The percentages must each add to 100% and the income and capital shares for each beneficiary must match. The election is made by the end of the trust's first income year starting on or after 1 July 2028, with notice to the Commissioner in the approved form by the return deadline. A trust that elects is not a minimum tax trust, and its beneficiaries are taxed on their fixed shares in the ordinary way.
Nominees
Beneficiaries who could already benefit, and not every kind.
A nominee must, in general, have been capable of benefiting under the trust at 1 July 2028. A complying superannuation fund cannot be nominated, nor a partnership, nor a company unless it is an "eligible company" as the Bill defines it. The nomination is where the family's long-term intentions get written down for the first time: who the trust is for, in what proportions, and for how long.
The trade
The discretion goes, for good.
Once the election is in force, the trustee must distribute in line with the nomination each year. The shares can be changed only on the death of a nominated individual or a relationship breakdown between nominated individuals. A child who comes of age, a beneficiary who moves overseas, a business that has a bad year and a good one: none of these is a ground to re-nominate. The trustee can revoke the election by notice, and the revocation cannot be reversed. A trust that has elected cannot later use the roll-over to move into a company.
Revocation
One inconsistent distribution, and the election is gone.
A distribution that does not match the nominated shares revokes the election automatically. For that income year the trustee is assessed on the whole of the trust's net income at the top marginal rate plus Medicare levy. The September draft gave the Commissioner no discretion and set no tolerance. The Bill as introduced is reported to add a discretion for inadvertent errors, which has to be applied for and is not a right. Trustee resolutions, accountants' distribution minutes and the trust's bank payments all have to agree with the nomination, every year, for as long as the election stands.
The deed
Does the deed allow it, and does changing it change the trust.
Most family trust deeds give the trustee an unfettered discretion and say nothing about fixed shares. Whether the deed needs to be varied to support the nomination, whether the variation power allows it, and whether a variation that fixes beneficial entitlements creates a new trust over the assets for capital gains tax and duty purposes are questions that come before the election, not after. Inserting fixed-entitlement wording into a deed does not of itself make the trust a fixed trust; what counts is the rights the deed actually creates and whether any power to vary them remains.
A different election
This is not the family trust election you may already have made.
A family trust election under Schedule 2F of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 fixes the family group for the trust loss and franking rules and exposes distributions outside the group to family trust distribution tax. It does nothing to take the trust outside the minimum tax. The excluded election trust election is a separate, new election with different consequences. A trust can have both, and the family group under the first affects who may receive the trust's income under the second.
Victoria
No transfer, so usually no duty, but not a ruling.
Because the election moves no property, Treasury does not expect it to trigger State duty. The State Revenue Office has not said so, and a deed variation that changes who is entitled to the trust's capital is the kind of change that has been looked at before. Where the trust holds Victorian land, the variation is worth testing first.
Where it goes wrong
Where elections fail.
A nomination the deed does not support
So the trustee has no power to distribute as nominated.
Shares fixed for this year
With no thought for the next twenty.
The wrong company
A corporate beneficiary nominated that is not an eligible company.
The year-end resolution
An accountant's resolution that streams a capital gain differently from the nomination.
A variation that resettles
A deed variation that resettles the trust over Victorian land.
Election first, roll-over second
The election made in 2028, the roll-over wanted in 2029.
FAQs
Common questions.
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Is this the same as a family trust election?
Can I change the beneficiaries later?
What happens if the trustee distributes differently once?
Can I use the election and the roll-over?
Does changing the deed make my trust a fixed trust?
Trust tax changes
Related pages.
This page is general information about proposed Commonwealth legislation and current Victorian law. It is not legal or taxation advice and does not take your circumstances into account. The Bills may change before they are enacted, and some matters, including capital gains tax interactions, are to be dealt with in later legislation. Advice should be obtained before any election is made or any asset is transferred.
Page TT-06 · Trust tax changes · Last reviewed 27 October 2026
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