NZ Inland Revenue releases draft GAAR guidance

New Zealand has had a general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) since income tax was first introduced in 1891. But in the past decade, changes in Inland Revenue practice and judicial attitudes have seen the GAAR, which was previously considered applicable only to highly artificial tax avoidance schemes, become probably the most broadly applied GAAR of any country in the world. Russell McVeagh’s Tim Stewart tracks this trend.