Isle of Man: Doing business & staying in touch

The island's economy relies principally on financial services; banking accounts for around 15% of the economy with insurance and other financial services accounting for a further 20% or so. Financial service businesses are attracted by banking secrecy laws that render assets deposited on the island less vulnerable to disclosure requirements than those on the mainland. That said, the Manx government has made strides to shake off the island’s reputation as a shady tax haven by improving financial transparency and signing tax information exchange deals with a dozen countries.

Taxation rates are also, on the whole, lower than those of the UK. There’s no capital gains tax, wealth tax, stamp duty, death duty or inheritance tax on the island. Tourism accounts for around 5% of GDP, a figure that is improving all the time. The island has also attracted online gambling sites, a fact that has led to information technology being the fastest growing sector here.

There is a small agricultural and fishing sector, and limited manufacturing; once the mainstays of the local economy, the importance of these sectors continues to diminish. Financial incentives offered to film and television producers have led to an increase in the number of major productions shot on the island in recent years. The island’s landscape has starred in a number of movie genres, from sci-fi thrillers, romantic comedies, action adventures and period dramas as the sweeping coastlines, pretty towns and rustic countryside provide a wide variety of locations on which to shoot. The 19th century crofter’s cottages of Cregneash, the oldest village on the island, stood in for an Irish village in Waking Ned when filmmakers failed to find anywhere in Ireland that was ‘Irish enough’.

The unemployment rate was a mere 2.3% in 2012, substantially lower than elsewhere in the UK, and growth was a healthy 4-5% in 2011, a fact attributed to the island’s diverse economy.