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
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