The use of a trust for trading purposes is not particularly common in New Zealand, but does occur in some instances. A carefully structured trust can provide businesses with the benefit of limited liability for the people running the business, as well as flexibility for distributing profits to various beneficiaries named in the trust deed. However, trading trusts are more expensive to set-up, more expensive to run from a compliance perspective, and it is important to realise that losses derived by a business in a trust cannot be distributed out to beneficiaries. If you are considering forming a trust to run a business in feel free to contact us so that we can ensure your trading trust structuring is undertaken with due consideration to all the essential requirements.