If you have an FTP server running behind a server that acts as the gateway or firewall, here are the rules to enable full NAT for active and passive connections.
# general rules for forwarding traffic between external interface tap0 and internal interface eth0
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o tap0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -A FORWARD -i tap0 -o eth0 -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o tap0 -j ACCEPT
# NAT for active/passive FTP. 192.168.178.21 would be your internal ftp server
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 20 -j DNAT --to 192.168.178.21:20
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 21 -j DNAT --to 192.168.178.21:21
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 1024:65535 -j DNAT --to 192.168.178.21:1024-65535
iptables -A FORWARD -s 192.168.178.21 -p tcp --sport 20 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -s 192.168.178.21 -p tcp --sport 21 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -s 192.168.178.21 -p tcp --sport 1024:65535 -j ACCEPT
# allowing active/passive FTP
iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --sport 21 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --sport 20 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --sport 1024: --dport 1024: -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 21 -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 20 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --sport 1024: --dport 1024: -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED,NEW -j ACCEPT
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