Legislation, most prominently the US Foreign Account Tax
Compliance Act (FATCA) and the OECD Common Reporting Standard
(CRS), as well as local regulation directly and indirectly linked
to these (e.g. due diligence rules, accounting and reporting
requirements etc.) are posing an additional challenge to financial
intermediaries and most importantly to their clients. This is all
the more the case when asset holding structures, such as trusts,
foundations, companies, partnerships, private funds etc. are used.
Reporting and disclosure rules have become omnipresent over the
years.
Asset holding structures and their uses have been the subject of
frequent media misrepresentation. This wrongly created the
impression that such vehicles are primarily abusive and implemented
for illicit purposes. The reality frequently looks different. In
fact, most often the reasons to start an asset holding structure
lie in private law and not in tax or confidentiality. Cross-border
ownership
