p001front.qxd (Page 1) - Isle of Man Today

Isle of Man Examiner, March 2006 Businessupdate
5
PHILIP DEARDEN JM060227-35 COLIN FREEMAN JM060227-44 DARREN WHYMAN: JM060227-64 COLIN GOODWIN JM060227-42
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perspective we will continue to look at taxation. We are
not going to sit on our laurels and wait for business to
come to the Isle of Man.
WHYMAN: This year will be a benchmark to see what
impact it has. In terms of creating a tax strategy, it is
taking an important lead.
MIKE SHIMMIN: To some extent, I was hoping that
rather than having extremely wealthy individuals move
here who have made their money and want to retire, it
is the entrepreneurial people I would like to see here
setting up businesses.
DEARDEN: Unfortunately, these individuals are
probably less likely to use the cap. If their businesses
are elsewhere, they are probably paying tax elsewhere.
We certainly have a lot of clients whose businesses are
across the world and the cap doesn’t mean that much
to them.
But there are others who have sold their businesses
and have a lot of cash in the bank and for them, the
cap is fantastic and it has generated a lot of interest.
The big taxes for very wealthy people are inheritance
tax and capital gains tax, and ours are nil. The tax cap is
icing on the cake for them.
MIKE SHIMMIN: For those people, when they do move
somewhere with the intention of not doing any more
work, they actually can’t resist it. They are
entrepreneurial by nature and they just get involved.
Plans for new company vehicle
DEARDEN: Our existing company law is extremely
ancient. It is based on UK acts which are pre-First
World War and it is designed for a different era.
Everybody in the CSP industry is agreed that we need
something new.
There are probably different views on what exactly is
needed but the proposals for the new corporate vehicle
are certainly administratively a lot easier to operate.
There is innovative thinking in there. It would have
been good to have brought it in with the tax legislation
on one day. We can’t now do that now so we are going to
have to have two separate events, which can’t be all bad.
CORRIGAN: It is not critical to have everything rolled
into one announcement. We need reasons to be talking
to the professional communities in London and other
financial centres. We don’t want an excessive delay on
this but we do want to have reasons to talk about the
strengths of doing business on the Island. We need to
spread the message.
ACCA’s KEITH WOODS: Having new pieces of
legislation coming through like this on a timely basis is
critical for the success of the Island.
MIKE SHIMMIN: Certainly if it doesn’t go through in
this Tynwald, it will cause at least another year’s delay
and it will have lost all of the impact which has been
built up. This has been out for extensive consultation.
By and large, there is consensus that it is a good thing
and we should have it.
Treasury’s MARK SHIMMIN: It is a parliamentary issue
now. The intent on Treasury’s part is to get the bill in
front of the Keys at the earliest opportunity.
MIKE SHIMMIN: There have been meetings and
lunches with a number of MHKs to explain why we
need this vehicle and what is all about, and try to make
sure they understand the urgency for it. I haven’t heard
from anybody from government saying they don’t like it.
Generating bank business
MARK SHIMMIN: What the Island has been reasonably
good at in the past is the public and private sectors
working together. We, as government, through
marketing and IoM Finance, need to be targeting the
people within banking groups who are key decision
makers and helping to ensure they are aware not just of
the tax package but the range of benefits in terms of
the Island.
That could be reinforced and strengthened by the
work which is done by local executives employed here
making that point within that group.
DEARDEN: The strategy is very positive. What the
Treasury has done here is to give banks an incentive to
retain profits on the Isle of Man. It has created a good
environment and I hope the banks respond, which will
be really positive for the Isle of Man.
MIKE SHIMMIN: The perception is that IoM
Government and the regulators communicate much
better with industry than they do in the Channel
Islands.
GOODWIN: We do, if you look at what we have
delivered in relation to the banks. As a result of a lot of
consultation with the Association of Licensed Banks
and speaking to the group MDs, tax directors and so
on, we have been doing that continually for some time.
One of the big pluses for the Island is that government
is open and accessible and will see people at any time.
I spend a lot of time meeting potential new businesses
and talking to them directly.
We have said to any of the members of ALB that, if they
have a board meeting and want us to come and talk to
the board, we will do that. We will help sell this as a
package.
Challenges ahead
NUTTALL: The challenge for us as managers in our
business is to go to our groups and explain the rules to
them and get them to commit to bringing new centres
of excellence over here. It is a fair challenge from the
government. But if our group feels it does not want to
commit any more funds offshore, there doesn’t seem to
be a route by which we, as the local managers by being
more creative, can reduce our tax charge.
GOODWIN: We are continuing to look at this. If, in due
TO PAGE 6
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