If you are not a tax resident of New Zealand and have a New Zealand trust with New Zealand resident trustees, you may be subject to the IRD’s new foreign trust registration and disclosure rules.
These rules are in place as a result of concerns around the use of foreign trusts following the 'Panama Papers' publicity. The IRD have moved to make sure that they obtain and pass on significant information in relation to foreign trusts.
To provide some brief background, a foreign trust is a trust where no person who has made a settlement on the trust has been a tax resident of New Zealand during the lifetime of the trust. This means your typical foreign trust is one that is set up and funded by individuals who are not tax resident at the time the trust was set up and have not become tax resident since. One of the main benefits of a foreign trust is that foreign income is not subject to tax in New Zealand.Following this, if you have a trust and set it up at time when you were not tax resident of New Zealand and no person who has provided any value or gifted to the trust has become a tax resident since, then you may have a foreign trust and you should contact us immediately to determine if the new registration and annual filing rules apply to you.
Please contact us at GRA for assistance if you think these new rules might apply to you - phone us on +64 9 522 7955 or email us at [email protected].
Just wanted to pass on how incredibly impressed I was with Quade Fraser, I have some complicated aspects to my personal situation and was looking at the a purchase of a property while needing to consider multiple individuals, a company and with my contracting and GST considerations.
I asked the consultant multiple questions over our meeting and he was able to calmly and articulately answer everything and give me cause to think about a whole lot of areas I would not have even thought of including; bright line, GST, mixed-use assets, trust structures (considering children beneficiaries), utilising a company structure etc. The bottom line is, I have a much better idea on what we need to do to structure my affairs in the most beneficial way for my family over the long-term.
Very knowledgeable, professional and with a great manner too. I got a huge amount of value out of the meeting.
- Kate, June 2023
Gilligan Rowe and Associates is a chartered accounting firm specialising in property, asset planning, legal structures, taxation and compliance.
We help new, small and medium property investors become long-term successful investors through our education programmes and property portfolio planning advice. With our deep knowledge and experience, we have assisted hundreds of clients build wealth through property investment.
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