The revelation that New Zealand is a tax haven has naturally led to calls to be a good global citizen and stop enabling foreign tax cheats and criminals. But IRD disagrees. Why? Because some crooked lawyers might go out of business:
If New Zealand followed the norm and taxed the overseas income of foreign trusts then that might result in the end of the industry, Inland Revenue (IRD) says.
He said it was unlikely most of the owners of the nearly 12,000 foreign trusts in New Zealand would stay if those rules changed.
"The attraction I guess for those folks setting up foreign trusts in New Zealand is that by holding the assets offshore, they aren't taxed here.
"If we were to tax them, then maybe there wouldn't be foreign trusts here at all."
The industry is estimated to generate between $25 million and $50 million a year in New Zealand.
My heart fucking bleeds. Really. All those crooked lawyers having to do honest work for once. How sad.
But seriously: this is a matter of basic good global citizenship and collective defence against the rapacious, criminal 1%. New Zealand should not be part of this problem. Instead, we should be part of the solution: bust the trusts, drive the lawyers out of business, arrest the crooks, and make the rich pay their fair share.
