Key Features

• Assets settled into a New Zealand foreign trust will be protected from creditors unable to enforce foreign judgments in New Zealand.
• New Zealand foreign trusts are not subject to forced heirship legislation in jurisdiction of settlor or any trust beneficiary.
• Maximum trust duration is 125 years.
• New Zealand foreign trusts are taxed by residence of the settlor rather than through the residency of the trustee. So long as the settlor and assets of a trust are located outside of New Zealand, the trust will not be subject to New Zealand tax. Trust income must generally be reported and may be taxable in the home jurisdictions of settlors, beneficiaries and/or other controlling persons.
• Basic trust information must be provided to beneficiaries.
• Information regarding trust settlors, beneficiaries, assets, settlements and distributions must be provided annually to the New Zealand tax authorities but is not accessible to the public.

• Only foreign judgments from countries having a reciprocal agreement with New Zealand are enforceable and only following registration of judgment through issuing New Zealand court proceedings.
• New Zealand is not perceived as a harmful tax jurisdiction by the OECD, nor a preferential tax regime or tax haven by other countries.
• Regarded as one of the most transparent and least corrupt nations on earth.
• New Zealand does not maintain beneficial ownership registers.