Watson's Cullen Group accepts IRD appeal ahead of $60M tax avoidance trial

Mon, 28 May 2018

By Sophie Boot May 29 (BusinessDesk) - Inland Revenue and Eric Watson's Cullen Group have settled one pre-trial dispute ahead of a tax avoidance trial in Auckland later this year. IRD is pursuing Cullen Group for $59.5 million in non-resident withholding tax, as it says a 2002 restructuring was done to avoid tax. Eric Watson owned all the shares in Cullen Investments before November 2002, when he sold all of that company's shares into the newly formed Cullen Group. Watson then loaned $291 million to Cullen Group, assigning those loans to...

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