Local and foreign trusts

Whether you're safeguarding assets, planning for future generations, or optimising your tax efficiency, the right trust structure can make all the difference in achieving your goals. 

It's essential to manage the implications of your trust. You might be establishing or running a local or foreign trust, be a recipient of a distribution from a foreign trust, have offshore assets within a trust, or have non-resident beneficiaries, all of which can have conflicting tax outcomes which need to be managed.  

Whatever the reason for placing your assets in a trust, understanding the nuances of trust taxation can unlock significant opportunities including efficient wealth transfer, asset protection and preservation, and tax efficiencies across multiple jurisdictions. 

 Incorrectly classifying your trust, or misreporting foreign and local income can result in penalties, back taxes or even higher tax rates on distributions. Worse still, audits can be triggered that can impact your wealth preservation goals. 

How we can help

We can help you take control of your trust’s tax position by: 

• reviewing your existing trust structures
• aligning business and asset protection strategies
• structuring your cross-border trust to ensure compliance with New Zealand’s foreign trust disclosure rules
• tax planning for trust distributions
• ongoing compliance and reporting