The Isle of Man's first Director of E-Commerce took office in late September 2000, with responsibility for co-ordinating the development, promotion and implementation of an e-commerce strategy for the island. As part of its programme to encourage e-businesses to set-up on the island, the government has also sought to make it as attractive a location as possible from a taxation point of view.

In June 2001, the government's e-commerce division published a report, entitled 'The E-Commerce and E-Society Strategy Report', which set out in detail the Island's approach to becoming one of the world's leading e-commerce centres and most advanced 'e-societies'.

The island had set itself an ambitious goal, however, since the world, both onshore and offshore, is full of countries which have said they mean to become global e-commerce leaders.

Also in June 2001, the Isle of Man launched a new e-commerce web site.

Developed by the E-Commerce Division of the Chief Secretary's Office, the web site brought together for the first time in electronic format the many and varied advantages available on the Island to existing and new e-commerce businesses. As well as providing direct access to Government information about e-commerce, the site also provides a portal to private sector organisations offering e-commerce solutions, which are categorised on the site and provide direct links to the e-mail addresses and web sites of those private sector organisations.

As an e-commerce location, the Isle of Man's advantages are its position in the EU, both geographically and structurally, an established base of professionals, liberal legislation, good telecommunications and the Ronaldsway Freeport. The problem for the Isle of Man alongside Ireland is that it is small, and inevitably has less depth in terms of infrastructure, skilled workers and support services.

By locating websites in the Isle of Man to carry out functions previously based in high-tax jurisdictions such as sales and marketing, treasury management, supply of financial services, and most of all, the supply of digital goods such as music, video, training, software etc, businesses can take advantage of low rates of taxation for increasingly substantial parts of their operation.

This section of the e-commerce site explores how businesses can optimise their tax structure by using the Isle of Man as a base while still keeping to sensible commercial principles of operation.

THE LEGISLATION

• The Electronic Transactions Act

THE FACILITIES

• Hosting and ISP facilities
  
• E-commerce facilities
  
• Banking and Payment Processing facilities

TAX-EFFICIENT E-COMMERCE

• Planning the Tax Structure
  
• What to locate in the Isle of Man
  
• Offshore options for E-businesspeople

HONG KONG - E-commerce in the Hong Kong - The Legislation - The Facilities - Tax-efficient E-commerce

ISLE OF MAN - E-commerce in the Isle of Man - The Legislation - The Facilities - Tax-efficient E-commerce

GIBRALTAR - E-commerce in Gibraltar - The legislation - The facilities - Tax-efficient E-commerce

OTHER OFFSHORE E-COMMERCE JURISDICTIONS - Andorra - Aruba - Bahamas - Barbados - British Virgin Islands - Cayman Islands - Cook Islands - Costa Rica - Cyprus - Guernsey - Ireland - Jersey - Liechtenstein - Luxembourg - Madeira - Malta - Mauritius - Monaco - Netherlands Antilles - Panama - Seychelles - Switzerland - Turks & Caicos Islands - Vanuatu