Konrad Mizzi to submit to annual audit from tax commissioner

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said he will subject himself to an annual audit from the Inland Revenue Commissioner to investigate him and the trust he set up in New Zealand, which is run by trustees connected to the Mossack Fonseca group in Panama.

“I am going to be the first MP to submit myself annually to an audit from the Commissioner of Inland Revenue. I am subjecting myself to the highest level of scrutiny.”

In an interview for MaltaToday on Sunday, Mizzi denies using the company he had set up in Panama, which is in turn owned by a trustee firm that manages his New Zealand trust, to minimise tax exposure on his wealth.

He says he is paying full tax on all his Malta earnings, and it is this asset base, as declared in his 2014 parliamentary declaration, that will be managed by his financial advisors and deposited in his trust.

Mizzi said he owns the Panama firm Hearnville Inc, whose shareholders are ATC Administrators Inc. and Orion Trust, of New Zealand, the latter being the trustee of his Rotorua Trust, in New Zealand. The beneficiaries of the trust are his wife and children, while he is the settlor of the trust.

Orion Trust is connected to the Mossack Foneseca group of Panama, according to company records seen by MaltaToday.

Mizzi also showed this newspaper documents identifying him as the ultimate beneficial owner of Hearnville Inc.

Rotorua Trust was created on July 22, 2015, as a family estate planning structure, which will be open for 79 years.

FULL INTERVIEW IN MALTATODAY ON SUNDAY