The leak of the Panama Papers received worldwide media coverage. Media reports asserted that wealthy individuals were using New Zealand foreign trusts to hide money laundering and other illegal activities. This article examines the New Zealand Government's response to the Panama Papers. It includes background on the foreign trust regime and considers the proposed legislative response to deal with issues arising from an independent review of that regime. The implementation of the proposed legislative response in its current form will give rise to issues including increased compliance costs for trusts and their advisers, and concerns around confidentiality of information provided to New Zealand tax authorities. Those wishing to establish foreign trusts will need to consider whether the benefit of doing so outweighs such costs and risks. The autors conclude that the changes to the foreign trusts rules are simply part of the growing demand and momentum toward global transparency in fiscal affairs.

The final report of the Consultative Committee on Full Imputation and International Tax Reform. Volume 1 contains recommendations on the further detailed measures required for the operation of the imputation and international tax regimes. Volume 2 sets out the draft legislation.

An essential guide for any trust practitioner or trustee, this book provides a comprehensive overview of how the tax laws apply to settlors, trustees and beneficiaries. The third edition of Taxation of Trusts has been updated to incorporate recent developments in charity and trust case law, the application of FATCA to trusts, reforms to the disclosure requirements for foreign trusts, new tax changes affecting land-owning trusts, and other legislative reform that affect the tax obligations of trusts. The text also includes practical examples and summaries of recent tax and charity cases. Presented in a user-friendly format, the book seeks to answer questions that arise in practice. Each chapter includes relevant legislation for the subject matter covered.

In International Taxation of Trust Income, Mark Brabazon establishes the study of international taxation of trust income as a globally coherent subject. Covering the international tax settings of Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the US, and their taxation of grantors/settlors, beneficiaries, trusts, and trust distributions, the book identifies a set of principles and corresponding tax settings that countries may apply to cross-border income derived by, through, or from a trust. It also identifies international mismatches between tax settings and purely domestic design irregularities that cause anomalous double- or non-taxation, and proposes an approach to tax design that recognises the policy functions (including anti-avoidance) of particular rules, the relative priority of different tax claims, the fiscal sovereignty of each country, and the respective roles of national laws and tax treaties. Finally, the book includes consideration of BEPS reforms, including the transparent entity clause of the OECD Model Tax Treaty.