Jeeves: It’s an odd one sir. They managed to quite successfully see their way past the abductions and incarcerations, the death penalty, forced abortions, unenforced labour legislation and the horrendous environmental and human rights records when negotiating their FTA with China. Their waterways are, erm, murky. They are unable…

Exactly. Key has…

Really expensive, involves suave lobbying on its behalf, benefits a small number of people – yep, fits.

http://thedailyblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-12-at-4.55.04-pm-600x365.png

Although they haven't.

I don't understand why you would want to try and lend support to the PM's talking point.

You cannot hope…

Nicely put Ian.

The ICIJ database has the same warning.

No, just cuts off avenues for legal threats.

'Offshore companies and trusts are routinely used for entirely legal purposes, and Mossack Fonseca maintains that it has always complied with international protocols. A reference to a person…

Here's the parliamentary coverage — Key ejected around 5:45 — not much to see in the leadup apart from Key being his usual odious self.

I guess that complicates things but it'd still seem like quite a risk for a Minister to claim they hadn't been told something, unless they were certain.

If I…

However, they do see/hear headlines, like "Key chucked out", featuring on all bulletins tonight.

The impossible, it happened.

Babel17!

Hmmm, Keytruda...

This government, from the day they got in, have insisted on oral briefings from officials. They never…

Then again, as an Australian commentator…

This seems like the type of advice that, if present, would be very OIA'able from IRD.

As if he didn't have eight years as Minister of Revenue to do something about it.

I do not buy for a second that he wasn't informed by IRD of the situation with foreign…

I'm not sure if it's the incident to…

I'm told that Western Australia only disallowed hunting permits that included aboriginals late last century. Whether someone could have got a permit issued and used it is an open question, but it was at least superficially the…

Incidentally, does anyone know where the Maori Party stands on this issue?…

This is what I fear is already happening. Watching the hopeless 'Breakfast' on TV One…

This is true, but it's also not the first time that accusations have flown about corruption and dirtyness in politics (esp with the current government), and lately that's had little effect except to polarise people's…

It's not just rhetoric, it's a serious comment, and it matters. It particularly matters to me that misogynistic and nasty comments to women commenting here didn't merit a ban.

I made that comment in good faith. I was appalled…

There are interesting links appearing all over the place.

Today’s Stuff editorial points out the potential damage to New Zealand’s good reputation and calls for decisive action.

On 3 News last night Key tried to rebrand Nicky Hager as a conspiracy theorist, which is pretty…

Link to Slater – result!

And despite assuring the PM that he had no connection to Mossack Fonseca, it seems…

Well, that makes it easier for me to comment here again. It's a shame that we've lost some other women from this site in the meantime.

To be very clear, I totally agree with the final thing that tipped you over into banning…

Steve Barnes is now very fucking banned.

(I was just thinking that somebody should turn the International Reptilian Shapeshifter Conspiracy into a movie. Maybe get Stephen Fry to play the Duke of Edinburgh. I'm sure there would be a role for Rhys Darby as well).

Apparently.
As you were....
I give up.
Bye, and fuck you all...

I'd happily back the Investigative Journalists over the kind of people who call talkback at 3 a.m. ranting about The Truth.

roflnui

It's only the LTCs that have 0% tax.

The ICIJ has a huge amount of information online already including a long read showing some of the individuals involved in tax evasion and this little game which shows how easily money can be laundered and tax evaded.

On the local front…

They don't have to, they can just buy another house in Ponsonby or Parnell, no CGT.
Wealth is different to income.

But let's assume that this squirming from Key and his associates has a much darker…

When you've been splattered by consequence-free corruption for years like the press gallery, guess it must become harder to remember the damage it does beyond the bubble to reputation-based things like trade, global research alliances,…

Usual people may be offended by this.
Being "unusual", I am not...
;-)

It's actually puzzling that…

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201799937/tax-expert-weighs-in-on-nz's-role-in-panama-papers

Listen from 4:45 on and hear…

Perhaps a good reason why Key is reluctant to talk about The Cook Islands and their part in the Panama papers.

But all this is moot because we're talking about it in terms of it discrediting Key and National in the eyes of the public,…

If you have a trust in the UK, HMRC will look at you funny and charge the trust income tax on all income over GBP1000, plus capital gains (even if…

Many other countries tax trusts on the basis of where the trustee lives. If the trustee lives in your…

It also looks suspect to me, but I'd not rule out government's PR machine simply trying to let themselves down lightly, as opposed to largely admitting to an outright failure on their…

Unless they've been stashing their loot via Niue or the Cook Islands. Wonder why Key was named in…

Indeed...
Scenareo...
I live in New Zealand and I am the beneficiary a Trust, in the Hidden Islands. The Trust, who's trustee is "Me With a Different Hat" gets payed all the money I earn from Greedy…

This is…

Exactly. Keep in mind that Mossack Fonseca is only a small part of the conceal-your-money offshore puzzle. While Key and his mates have undoubtably sold NZ to the world's super-wealthy as a tax haven, I suspect…

• Where there's smoke…
• Methinks he doth protest too much

True…
And in Foreignland they no longer use earwax as a currency but hey….
;-)
That's where Currency Traders come into the picture and that's a whole new ball of earwax, arbitrage, you can trade that tractor part…

Yeah, but you'll put a few lawyers on the benefit, which the rest of us then have to pay for. So really it costs more.

Better still, from the same IRD estimate, that only results in $3m tax paid here. That's the benefit to public coffers. It's almost like these tax-dodge advisers are using the same tricks to reduce their effective rate to $12.5%. Bold atlasses, all. Ambishus.

But New Zealand doesn’t just have its share of wealthy tax-dodgers.

This is an entire country embarrassed and tarnished by the contents of Mossack Fonesca’s secret files.

New Zealand is a large chapter of the Panama Papers. It is referenced a staggering 60,940 times.

Roger Thompson…

There has to be more to it than that and that, frankly, worries me.

In 2013 Mossack Fonseca had been on a marketing drive, cutting its prices to build up…