Fewer than 200 trusts and all disclosed
The Herald reports:
Prime Minister John Key said Inland Revenue staff have trawled through the Panama Papers and found fewer than 200 foreign trusts registered in New Zealand had links to Mossack Fonseca and all had been disclosed.
The Inland Revenue ‘crack squad’ was charged with looking through the files released early this morning to ensure no New Zealanders were dodging their tax obligations and that foreign trusts in New Zealand were within their legal obligations.
A gleeful Mr Key reported their findings this afternoon after facing days of questioning about whether the papers proved New Zealand was effectively a tax haven targeted by Mossack Fonseca.
He said of 500,000 entities and organisations Mossack Fonseca had a link to, fewer than 200 were trusts with any link to New Zealand. All of those were disclosed, which Mr Key said meant they were subject to information sharing requests from other countries and Inland Revenue.
So what is the wrong doing here?