Isle of Man Guide

THE Isle of Man moved fully on July 1, 2011 to automatic exchange of information with European Union member states under the EU Savings Directive, making it one of the first non-EU countries to do so.

Countries applying the EU Savings Directive collaborate to counter cross-border tax evasion by collecting and exchanging information about bank interest earned by people outside their state of residence. The move is a further and important expression of the determination of the Isle of Man to be at the forefront of those countries complying with accepted international benchmarks of best practice in transparency and regulation.

It follows a positive report earlier this month from the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information. The Report praised the Isle of Man for its “effective and expeditious” exchange of information under its network of tax co-operation agreements, and assessed all elements of the international tax standards as being in place in the Island.

Commenting on the move to automatic exchange Treasury Minister, Anne Craine MHK said:

'By moving fully to automatic exchange of information with our EU partners, the Isle of Man has again demonstrated its commitment to being an internationally responsible and co-operative finance centre which maintains an effective and pro-business regulatory environment; enabling us to weather the challenges being faced by all countries in the global economic downturn. I have signed three more tax co-operation agreements on behalf of the Isle of Man in the last two weeks. Those new agreements, coupled with this move on information exchange and the very positive Global Forum peer review report, further highlights that we deliver on the commitments we make to our international partners.'

Since 2002 the Isle of Man has entered into 24 tax information exchange agreements and four comprehensive double taxation agreements.

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