Isle of Man

The Isle of Man is an established international finance centre, with a secure base built on political stability, low taxation and a firmly established fiscal and regulatory environment independent of the UK. In relation to providing international services it is fully supported by a modern infrastructure. It is one of the few international finance centres where Government’s objectives for economic growth are matched by the physical space and labour resources needed to sustain them.

In addition to the introduction of new investment and taxation vehicles designed to maintain and develop the Island’s status as one of the premier offshore locations, the Isle of Man Government is already well advanced in the implementation of a new and dynamic zero tax strategy. To encourage further inward investment the Government has also initiated a strategy and provided funding to establish the Isle of Man as a leading e-commerce platform.


Fiduciary Services

The fiduciary services industry in the Isle of Man is established and well developed and the Isle of Man can rightly claim to be the centre of excellence for company administration and trust services. There are over 180 licensed Corporate and Trust Service Providers (CSP's and TSP's) who can provide a full range of company and trust services to entities incorporated in the Isle of Man and in most other jurisdictions and the Isle of Man has a good reputation for it's quality of services to companies and trusts in the Isle of Man generally is regulated by the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission under the terms of the Fiduciary Services Act 2000 and 2005.

The Island also offers a natural regime for trusts, being a common law jurisdiction and which has adopted the principles of Equity as they developed in the English courts and which have been applied identically in the Isle of Man since the seventeenth century. The Island has a number of corporate law statutes which co-exist to provide a choice of corporate form.

These include:
* The Companies Act 1931-2004
* The Limited Liability Companies Act 1996 and 1999
* The Companies Act 2006

Of particular interest is the Companies Act 2006 and is detailed further below. This complements the existing company law offering by adding a modern business company style, not previously found within a European Time Zone. Companies and trusts provided from the Isle of Man may often be part of an integrated wealth management service as the Isle of Man is also strong private banking, life insurance (bond wraps), investment funds as well as international legal and accountancy services.
The Isle of Man has also developed a number of specialist niche corporate services at which it excels in areas such as ship and aircraft ownership, employment companies, intellectual property, real estate and financing as well as AIM listings.


Funds

Funds under administration business in the Isle of Man now stands at just over US $32 Billion up from US $9.8 Billion in 2003 and the forecasts for the next 2 years are equally encouraging. The Island is now well on its way to achieving its target of US $100 Billion of funds under administration by 2010.

Isle of Man have achieved this excellent performance due to several factors. These include the comprehensive reform of the Island's fiscal, regulatory and legislative structures and the introduction of several innovative Government incentives e.g. inward investment grant aid programme designed to encourage continued growth of high quality finance entities wishing to migrate to the Island or establish a new presence here. In addition our reputation for quality makes for a compelling business case to operate from here. The Isle of Man has a Triple 'A' sovereign rating from Standard & Poor and Moody's and has recently been affirmed by the I.M.F as an offshore Finance Centre of excellence.

Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority

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