New Zealand isn't a tax haven and there's no need to change tax laws, the government says.
Papers leaked from one of the world's largest offshore law firms, Panama-based Mossack Fonseca, mention more than 214,000 trusts and companies in more than 200 countries that are being used for tax avoidance.
New Zealand is one of them, and the papers show Malta's energy minister Konrad Mizzi and the prime minister's chief of staff, Keith Schembri, set up two offshore trusts in New Zealand in 2015 through Mossack Fonseca.
The 1.5 million leaked documents name high profile presidents, prime ministers, sports starts and business people with connections to the secret companies.
Opposition parties are claiming the documents show New Zealand is a tax haven and say the country's reputation is at risk, but Prime Minister John Key and Revenue Minister Michael Woodhouse reject that.
"New Zealand has had the same tax laws when it comes to trusts since 1988, they were reviewed by the OECD in 2013 and they gave New Zealand a clean bill of health," Mr Key told reporters on Monday.
"We also have extensive disclosure regimes and we are signatories to a network of treaties."
Mr Key says tax havens are places where there is non-disclosure of information.
"New Zealand has full disclosure of information ... we have a quite legitimate regime, we disclosure that information through the anti-money laundering rules we have."
Mr Woodhouse says it's "ridiculous" to suggest New Zealand is a tax haven.
"We tax people who live, work and do business here. We don't tax foreign income earned by foreigners," he said.
"Our tax rules require foreign trusts to be registered."
Labour leader Andrew Little is calling for urgent changes to tax laws to protect New Zealand's integrity.
NZ First leader Winston Peters says "dirty money" is being washed through New Zealand.
"We are now known as one of the world's `quiet tax havens' as the leaked documents reveal," he said.
"Because of our weak laws, over 12,000 trusts pay no tax here on their overseas earnings."
The Greens say it's time to "break open" New Zealand's foreign trust industry to help fight global tax evasion.
