Flow-through entity

A flow-through entity (FTE) is a legal entity where income "flows through" to investors or owners; that is, the income of the entity is treated as the income of the investors or owners. Flow-through entities are also known as pass-through entities or fiscally-transparent entities.

Common types of FTEs are general partnerships, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships. In the United States, additional types of FTE include S corporations, income trusts and limited liability companies.

Most countries require an FTE (or its owners) to file an annual return reporting the shares of income allocated to owners, and to provide each owner with a statement of allocated income to enable owners to report their shares of income on their own tax returns. In the United States, the statement of allocated income is known as a K-1 (or Schedule K-1).

Depending on the local tax regulations, this structure can avoid dividend tax and double taxation because only owners or investors are taxed on the revenue. Technically, for tax purposes, flow-through entities are considered "non-entities" because they are not taxed; rather, taxation "flows-through" to another tax return.

Definitions

According to International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) a pass-through entity or flow-through entity (FTE) is a "non-taxable entity, such as a partnership, under which the income or expense is generally regarded as income or expense of the participants under the transparency principle." FTEs are based on conduit theory or pipeline theory which is defined as a "method of integrating the taxation at the entity and participator level under which income or deductions flow through from the entity to its participators. The entity is in effect regarded as an extension of the participators.