Article: Trusts as Vehicles for Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance: a Critical Study

Mohammad Habibur Rahman recently published an article entitled, Trusts as Vehicles for Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance: a Critical Study, Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law ejournal (2021). Provided below is the abstract to the Article:

The legal arrangements related to the trusts are proved to be cumbersome and many also abuse this mechanism as a vehicle of tax evasion and avoidance. The secrecy is one of the disadvantages of the trusts which do not allow tax officials and other crime-fighting agencies to discover the existence of the trusts. This is also a case for the offshore trusts where foreign jurisdiction usually does not share the information with a third-party. This particular feature mainly popularized the notion of the offshore tax shelter. Undeniably, the trusts also have some positive implications which cannot be fulfilled by any other principle of law e.g. asset protection cases, commercial purpose, charitable trusts etc. Thus, this article intends to critically evaluate how trusts are often used as a vehicle for the tax evasion and avoidance particularly taking into account the political, social and moral contexts in which trusts operate.