Christian Aid welcomes the IoM Government’s decision to move to a more comprehensive form of tax information sharing with the UK.  Crucially, it seems this will include – for the first time - details of all beneficial owners of accounts, whose identities might otherwise be hidden by trusts and companies.  Mr Bell’s statement that ‘automatic exchange is becoming the global standard’ is especially  encouraging, in view of the significant tax revenue lost to developing countries due to individuals and companies hiding wealth offshore. 

Joseph Stead, Senior Economic  Justice Adviser,  said  ‘The Isle of Man deserves credit for taking a significant step forward.  We hope that the Isle of Man will now offer such information sharing with other countries, especially developing nations.  The logical step would be to sign up to the multilateral convention that many other countries, including all the G20, have already signed. We shall be pressing the forthcoming G8 summit to move forward with this’.

Phil Craine,  Area Officer for the IoM, commented that  ‘the Island may lose some business in the short term, as dubious money leaves here for more toxic havens – but this should be offset by a reputational gain, and the knowledge that it has done the right thing.’