Eric Watson's Cullen Group ordered to pay IRD more than $112m

Tue, 12 Mar 2019

By Jenny Ruth March 12 (BusinessDesk) - Eric Watson’s Cullen Group has been ordered to pay Inland Revenue $112 million plus penalties and costs after the group was found to have avoided paying tax for which it was liable. Justice Matthew Palmer of the Auckland High Court has ruled that Watson used “a web of entities” designed to avoid paying non-resident withholding tax (NRWT) of 15 percent on loans to Cullen Investments between 2002 and 2010. Instead, Watson-controlled Cayman Island-based offshore trusts, the nominal lenders, had paid...

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