Isle of Man

Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown Dependency near the United Kingdom, located in the Irish sea.

Language

The official language is English, while Manx Gaelic has also had official status since 1985, altho its is rarely spoken and is considered armost extinct.

Economy

The Isle of Man has been having a strong economy built on agriculture and fishing, now days these industries have been taken over by offshore banking, manufacturing and tourism and are the main sectors contributing to the economy. The agriculture and fishing industry now has only a small portion in the generation of the gross domestic product and doesn't take up nowhere as much of the economy as it used to in the past. An interesting note, that the Isle of Man has a part in the space industry and the team that won the "Google's Lunar x Prize" is planning to build a space station there and may add Isle of Man to the list of countries that have reached space.

Banking

One of the largest financial sectors of Isle of Man is banking. Especially the offshore part of it. This as the the one thing by which Isle of Man is know for.  The island could and sometimes is called a tax heaven. And for a good reason, most of the corporate sectors are free of tax, except the banking part, still most of the UK largest banks go through there. And since the registration of the first bank in Isle, the banking sector has been growing at enormous speeds especially in the past three decades.

Funds

The rapid growth of the funds in Isle of Man has been a reason for specialist fund administration operations to be set up. Making Isle a popular place for a large variety of funds and scheme choices available. Offering to incorporate, domicile and administer funds all in one jurisdiction, making it a great place for your needs. Only downside of funds in Isle of Man is that it might be difficult to chose the correct one.

Trusts

Trusts in Isle of Man are regulated by Financial Supervision Commission and modelled on the UK Trustee Act of 1925. Its a favorable jurisdiction for establishment of trusts since there are no capital gains tax, inheritance tax or gift and estate taxes. Altho there might be 18% of tax on undistributed income.

Double tax treaties

Altho there are a limited number of the double tax treaties available, they still are commonly used, because they offer zero taxation between the countries listed below:

• United kingdom
• Bahrain
• Estonia
• Malta