Tax planning in the boardroom: should directors owe a duty to understand their companies' tax planning?

Abstract

This paper analyses whether directors should owe a duty to understand their companies’ tax planning, and if so, what this duty should look like and whether this duty could successfully be implemented into New Zealand law. This paper then assesses whether it is in fact appropriate to impose on directors a duty to understand tax planning by comparing this duty to directors’ obligations and liabilities in other areas of regulation. Finally, this paper concludes that directors should owe a duty to understand their companies’ tax planning, but that this duty would be difficult to implement into New Zealand law.