When international tax meets the family trust

Dealing with the Australian taxation of offshore trusts is very difficult. The scope of the application of the law is highly uncertain and not well known. This is because the tax law uses core definitions that are not exact equivalents of trust law terms. In addition, foreign law uses terms that are not equivalent to Australian trust law usages. The result of this, combined with the statutory complexity, is that it becomes much easier than usual to make an incorrect analysis of tax consequences by relying on an incorrect understanding of a term. This article looks at the issues that arise with basic terms and core starting points in offshore trust taxation.