EU tax haven blacklist a ‘real danger’ to the Isle of Man

The Isle of Man’s chief minister, Howard Quayle, says the jurisdiction faces the “very real danger” of being put on the EU tax haven blacklist.

Isle of Man minister reveals plan to avoid EU tax blacklist

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Quayle made the statement last week while giving evidence to the Isle of Man’s economic policy review committee.

He said the island’s financial services authority was currently hard at work to address “a number of emerging threats on the external front”.

External threats

One of the threats outlined by Quayle was being added to the blacklist.

The IoM avoided being one of the 18 countries named on the list when it was released in December 2017. The list has been updated several times since its release, with nine jurisdictions currently on it.

The island did, however, end up on the so-called EU grey list. Jurisdictions on this list have pledged to make certain changes to their tax practices before December 2018. If they fail to do so, then there is a possibility they will be moved to the blacklist.

Quayle said: “We face the very real danger of the island being put on the EU blacklist.

“It is important to state the huge efforts that have been made in pulling together our response to the EU Code Group, which was satisfactory.

“We now face a challenging timeline to be able to make the changes we need before the deadline of December of this year.

“But we cannot fail to deliver these changes because of the potential repercussions for our economy if blacklisted,” he said.

Quayle did not specify what the changes were and the Isle of Man was not one of the jurisdictions that permitted the EU to publicly disclose the measures it needed to take to meet the required standard.

The comments follow revelations last week that the EU could soon add the US to the blacklist depending on the outcome of an OECD report.

Quayle scrutinised

The economic policy review committee, where Quayle made his statement about the blacklist, is one of the four standing committees of the parliament of the Isle of Man (Tynwald) that scrutinises the government.

As part of its role, the committee publicly scrutinises ministers and chief executives once a year about their respective departments.

Quayle also spoke on Brexit in the meeting and said the financial service authority was putting a “plan B” in place in case there is a hard-Brexit.

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