Increasingly, clients are holding assets in multiple jurisdictions. This may be driven by a number of factors, such as taxation (direct and inheritance), forced heirship or testators family maintenance legislation and asset protection concerns, including liability under family law and bankruptcy legislation. It sometimes also is driven by the need to spread wealth between countries, thereby assisting with sovereign risk and currency risk.
Estate planning for some wealthy Australians may involve them becoming a non-resident of Australia for tax purposes. Conversely, estate planning for residents of countries with inheritance tax (e.g. the UK) may involve those residents first becoming temporary tax residents of Australia, and eventually adopting a domicile of choice in Australia. This may not require them to renounce citizenship of their country (e.g. the UK), unlike perhaps, the US.
This event covered:
- pre-planning - Income & inheritance tax issues for incoming residents, outgoing residents & outgoing investors
- use of companies & trusts in low tax jurisdictions
- recent legislative developments in UK and elsewhere, and recent cases.