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**Hugh** · 11-04-2016, 11:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianch99

.. and the ability to block EU attempts to make offshore trusts more transparent:

Panama Papers: Cameron faces questions over trust letter

David Cameron 'argued to water down transparency rules over trusts'

From over 2 years ago...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...-property.html

Quote:

Trusts, although widely used in the UK, are little understood both here and abroad. This partly explains why the matter has been overlooked outside legal and tax circles. If a strict regime of disclosure were introduced, what would be the implications on our personal finances? A number of experts unravelled the issue for The Telegraph.

Joint property owners
Where property is owned by more than one person, as is the case with millions of married and unmarried couples, the ownership is formed as a trust. Mr Frimston said: “When you buy in joint names, at the end of the Land Registry transfer document there is an express trust, where the buyers declare the basis of their ownership.”
For Mr Frimston this neatly illustrates the extent to which trusts underpin UK, but not European, financial arrangements. “In the UK being a trustee means you remain liable to HMRC and other authorities,” he said.

“But in German, France, Italy and Spain the idea is that trusts are about avoiding liability, and that they are somehow dodgy.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0e7c0a20-f...#axzz45EpVDNix

Quote:

In the letter, seen by the Financial Times, Mr Cameron said: “It is clearly important we recognise the important differences between companies and trusts. This means that the solution for addressing the potential misuse of companies, such as central public registries, may well not be appropriate generally.”

Britain has emerged as the strongest European rival to Switzerland for private banking and wealth management, administering £1.2tn of assets, according to Deloitte. The sector contributed £3.2bn to the economy, according to 2014 estimates from the British Bankers’ Association.

A senior government source said that Mr Cameron’s letter reflected official advice that creating a central registry for trusts would have been complex and would have distracted from the main objective of shining a light on the ownership of shell companies.

“It would have slowed down the process because of the different types of trust involved,” the official said. “They are sometimes used to protect vulnerable people, so that would have been an extra complication.

“As the directive went through we reached a position where trusts which generate tax consequences had to demonstrate their ownership to HM Revenue & Customs.