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Summary Prospectus |
Franklin Federal Limited-Term
Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin
Tax-Free Trust
Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund's prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s prospectus, statement of additional information and other information about the Fund online at www.franklintempleton.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling (800) DIAL BEN/342-5236 or by sending an e-mail request to prospectus@franklintempleton.com. The Fund's prospectus and statement of additional information, both dated July 1, 2017, as may be supplemented, are all incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.
| Class A | Advisor Class |
| FFTFX | FTFZX |
Franklin Federal Limited-Term Tax-Free Income Fund
Investment Goal
To provide investors with as high a level of income exempt from federal income taxes as is consistent with prudent investment management and the preservation of shareholders’ capital.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
These tables describe the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. You may qualify for sales charge discounts in Class A if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $100,000 in Franklin Templeton funds. More information about these and other discounts is available from your financial professional and under “Your Account” on page 75 in the Fund's Prospectus and under “Buying and Selling Shares” on page 46 of the Fund’s Statement of Additional Information. In addition, more information about sales charge discounts and waivers for purchases of shares through specific intermediaries is set forth in Appendix A – Intermediary Sales Charge Discounts and Waivers to the Fund’s prospectus.
Please note that the tables and examples below do not reflect any transaction fees that may be charged by financial intermediaries, or commissions that a shareholder may be required to pay directly to its financial intermediary when buying or selling Advisor Class shares.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
| Class A | Advisor Class | |
| Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Purchases (as percentage of offering price) | 2.25% | None |
| Maximum Deferred Sales Charge (Load) (as percentage of the lower of original purchase price or sale proceeds) | None1 | None |
1. There is a 0.75% contingent deferred sales charge that applies to investments of $1 million or more (see "Investments of $1 Million or More" under "Choosing a Share Class") and purchases by certain retirement plans without an initial sales charge on shares sold within 18 months of purchase.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
| Class A | Advisor Class | |
| Management fees | 0.47% | 0.47% |
| Distribution and service (12b-1) fees | 0.15% | None |
| Other expenses | 0.08% | 0.08% |
| Total annual Fund operating expenses | 0.70% | 0.55% |
| Fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement1 | -0.07% | -0.07% |
| Total annual Fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement1 | 0.63% | 0.48% |
1. The investment manager has contractually agreed to waive or assume certain expenses so that common expenses (excluding Rule 12b-1 fees, acquired fund fees and expenses and certain non-routine expenses) for each class of the Fund do not exceed 0.48% until at least June 30, 2018. Contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement agreements may not be changed or terminated during the time period set forth above.
Example
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of the period. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund's operating expenses remain the same. The Example reflects adjustments made to the Fund's operating expenses due to the fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements by management for the 1 Year numbers only. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
| 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
| Class A | $ 288 | $ 437 | $ 599 | $ 1,070 |
| Advisor Class | $ 49 | $ 169 | $ 300 | $ 683 |
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual Fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund's performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 18.54% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its total assets in securities whose interest is free from federal income taxes, including the federal alternative minimum tax. Although the Fund tries to invest all of its assets in tax-free securities, it is possible that up to 20% of the Fund's total assets may be in securities that pay interest that may be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax and, although not anticipated, in securities that pay taxable interest.
Although the Fund does not have restrictions on the maturity of the securities it may buy, the Fund does maintain a dollar-weighted average portfolio maturity of five years or less.
The Fund only buys municipal securities rated, at the time of purchase, in one of the top four ratings categories by one or more U.S. nationally recognized rating services (or comparable unrated or short-term rated securities).
The Fund does not necessarily focus its investments in a particular state. The Fund may invest up to 35% of its total assets in municipal securities issued by U.S. territories.
Although the investment manager will search for investments across a large number of municipal securities that finance different types of projects, from time to time, based on economic conditions, the Fund may have significant positions in municipal securities that finance similar types of projects.
The investment manager selects securities that it believes will provide the best balance between risk and return within the Fund’s range of allowable investments and typically uses a buy and hold strategy. This means it generally holds securities in the Fund’s portfolio for income purposes, rather than trading securities for capital gains, although the investment manager may sell a security at any time if it believes it could help the Fund meet its goal.
Principal Risks
You could lose money by investing in the Fund. Mutual fund shares are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed or endorsed by, any bank, and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, or any other agency of the U.S. government.
Interest Rate When interest rates rise, debt security prices generally fall. The opposite is also generally true: debt security prices rise when interest rates fall. Interest rate changes are influenced by a number of factors, including government policy, monetary policy, inflation expectations, perceptions of risk, and supply and demand of bonds. In general, securities with longer maturities or durations are more sensitive to these interest rate changes.
Market The market values of securities or other investments owned by the Fund will go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably. The market value of a security or other investment may be reduced by market activity or other results of supply and demand unrelated to the issuer. This is a basic risk associated with all investments. When there are more sellers than buyers, prices tend to fall. Likewise, when there are more buyers than sellers, prices tend to rise.
Credit An issuer of debt securities may fail to make interest payments or repay principal when due, in whole or in part. Changes in an issuer's financial strength or in a security's credit rating may affect a security's value.
A change in the credit rating of a municipal bond insurer that insures securities in the Fund’s portfolio may affect the value of the securities it insures, the Fund’s share price and Fund performance. The Fund might also be adversely impacted by the inability of an insurer to meet its insurance obligations.
Focus The Fund may invest more than 25% of its assets in municipal securities that finance similar types of projects, such as utilities, hospitals, higher education and transportation. A change that affects one project, such as proposed legislation on the financing of the project, a shortage of the materials needed for the project, or a declining need for the project, would likely affect all similar projects, thereby increasing market risk.
Tax-Exempt Securities Failure of a municipal security issuer to comply with applicable tax requirements may make income paid thereon taxable, resulting in a decline in the security’s value. In addition, there could be changes in applicable tax laws or tax treatments that reduce or eliminate the current federal income tax exemption on municipal securities or otherwise adversely affect the current federal or state tax status of municipal securities.
Income Because the Fund can only distribute what it earns, the Fund's distributions to shareholders may decline when prevailing interest rates fall or when the Fund experiences defaults on debt securities it holds.
Prepayment Prepayment risk occurs when a debt security can be repaid in whole or in part prior to the security's maturity and the Fund must reinvest the proceeds it receives, during periods of declining interest rates, in securities that pay a lower rate of interest. Also, if a security has been purchased at a premium, the value of the premium would be lost in the event of prepayment. Prepayments generally increase when interest rates fall.
States The Fund’s portfolio is generally widely diversified among issuers of municipal securities. However, to the extent that the Fund has exposure from time to time to the municipal securities of a particular state, events in that state may affect the Fund’s investments and performance. These events may include economic or political policy changes, tax base erosion, constitutional limits on tax increases, budget deficits and other financial difficulties, and changes in the credit ratings assigned to municipal issuers of the state. The same is true of events in U.S. territories, to the extent that the Fund has exposure to any particular territory at any given time.
Liquidity From time to time, the trading market for a particular security or type of security or other investments in which the Fund invests may become less liquid or even illiquid. Reduced liquidity will have an adverse impact on the Fund’s ability to sell such securities or other investments when necessary to meet the Fund’s liquidity needs or in response to a specific economic event and will also generally lower the value of a security or other investments. Market prices for such securities or other investments may be volatile.
Management The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed investment portfolio. The Fund's investment manager applies investment techniques and risk analyses in making investment decisions for the Fund, but there can be no guarantee that these decisions will produce the desired results.
Performance
The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows changes in the Fund's performance from year to year for Class A shares. The table shows how the Fund's average annual returns for 1 year, 5 years, 10 years or since inception, as applicable, compared with those of a broad measure of market performance. The Fund's past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. You can obtain updated performance information at franklintempleton.com or by calling (800) DIAL BEN/342-5236.
Sales charges are not reflected in the bar chart, and if those charges were included, returns would be less than those shown.
Class A Annual Total Returns
| Best Quarter: | Q3'09 | 2.43% |
| Worst Quarter: | Q4'10 | -0.93% |
| As of March 31, 2017, the Fund's year-to-date return was 0.48%. | ||
Average Annual Total Returns
(figures reflect sales charges)
For the periods ended December 31, 2016
| 1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
| Franklin Federal Limited-Term Tax-Free Income Fund - Class A | |||
| Return Before Taxes | -2.20% | 0.32% | 2.02% |
| Return After Taxes on Distributions | -2.20% | 0.32% | 2.02% |
| Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | -0.89% | 0.52% | 1.99% |
| Franklin Federal Limited-Term Tax-Free Income Fund - Advisor Class | 0.20% | 0.93% | 2.35% |
| Bloomberg Barclays 5-Year Municipal Bond Index (index reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | -0.39% | 1.79% | 3.74% |
Historical performance for Advisor Class shares prior to their inception is based on the performance of Class A shares. Advisor Class performance has been adjusted to reflect differences in sales charges between classes.
The after-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns are shown only for Class A and after-tax returns for other classes will vary.
Investment Manager
Franklin Advisers, Inc. (Advisers)
Portfolio Managers
James Conn, CFA Senior Vice President of Advisers and portfolio manager of the Fund since inception (2003).
John Pomeroy Senior Vice President of Advisers and portfolio manager of the Fund since inception (2003).
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
You may purchase or redeem shares of the Fund on any business day online through our website at franklintempleton.com, by mail (Franklin Templeton Investor Services, P.O. Box 997151, Sacramento, CA 95899-7151), or by telephone at (800) 632-2301. For Class A, the minimum initial purchase for most accounts is $1,000 (or $50 under an automatic investment plan). Advisor Class is only available to certain qualified investors and the minimum initial investment will vary depending on the type of qualified investor, as described under "Your Account — Choosing a Share Class — Qualified Investors — Advisor Class" in the Fund's prospectus. There is no minimum investment for subsequent purchases.
Taxes
The Fund's distributions are primarily exempt from regular federal income tax. A portion of these distributions, however, may be subject to federal alternative minimum tax and state and local taxes. The Fund may also make distributions that are taxable to you as ordinary income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and
Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary's website for more information.
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Franklin Templeton Distributors, Inc. Franklin Federal Limited-Term |
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Investment Company Act file #811-04149 |
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© 2017 Franklin Templeton Investments. All rights reserved. |
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154 PSUM 07/17 |
00070430 |