With growing film and space industries and attractive tax rates, the Isle of Man is finding success, says Jon Robins

‘If a client asks what’s been happening on the island, it certainly helps to say that Johnny Depp has just been over and Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor have just left,’ says Andrew Corlett, managing partner of leading Isle of Man firm Cains Advocates. According to the lawyer, one reason for the island’s success as a financial centre has been its willingness to create a sympathetic regime for new areas of business, not least its burgeoning film industry.


The Isle of Man is a Crown-dependent territory of the UK with a population of approximately 72,000, and some 130 advocates. Mr Corlett’s 30-strong firm is legal adviser to the Isle of Man Film Commission; there are four to five feature films made on the island every year, including the forthcoming summer blockbuster Stormbreaker, based on Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling children’s books, and last year’s feature The Libertine, which stars Depp and John Malkovich.


‘The brand of the island has suffered from being seen as a northern seaside town,’ Mr Corlett says. ‘But the more the government can diversify the economy into areas such as super yachts, films or space helps to create a new brand image for the island.’ The firm has a space and satellite unit capitalising on the fact that the Isle of Man has a zero tax regime for space-related business.


The government has this month begun a re-branding exercise under the slogan ‘Freedom to flourish’. One business lawyer explains: ‘The thinking behind it is that other countries – and by other countries we mean you, the mainland – are swamped in red tape and bureaucracy. Having “freedom” is how the Isle of Man will market itself from now on.’


Image is important to the legal profession on the island. ‘One of the difficulties that we’ve always had is of perception, especially in the south of England,’ says John Rimmer, a private client partner at 12-partner firm Dickinson Cruickshank. ‘When people think of “offshore”, they automatically think Jersey. But we are lucky because we have such a great story to tell. We have very good laws and our trust laws, for example, are excellent. We also have a service-led profession that’s very keen to comply, very competitive and, probably, less expensive than the Channel Islands.’


He points to the Isle of Man’s tax strategy, which has a standard zero rate of corporate tax with a higher 10% rate for certain defined regulated businesses, mainly banking. In particular, the government in last year’s budget announced the introduction of the zero rate in respect of new areas of business, including e-gaming and film and television production.


Mr Rimmer points out that his firm’s trust work has increased despite the EU Savings Directive, which encourages countries to share information on deposit holders, and EU concerns over money laundering and tax avoidance.


‘One might think that that would drive business away, but what it has done is simply refine the business,’ he says. ‘We are experiencing higher quality, and higher-value work.’


International pressures to clamp down on money laundering have had little impact in practice, local firms insist. ‘We have had anti-money laundering regulations for a long time now and we are very well regulated. It is a misconception that a lot of money laundering goes on in offshore jurisdictions,’ asserts John Aycock, director of litigation at Mann & Partners. He was previously based on the British West Indies Turks and Caicos islands.


Mann & Partners was the first legal practice to incorporate as a company on the island in 1997 and employs eight lawyers. What is the difference between offshore work and mainland practice?


‘Clients who have established companies or trusts over here can still have little connection with the offshore jurisdiction other than through their companies or trusts, but they are quite legitimately using the tax breaks here,’ explains Mr Aycock. ‘It works in two ways. In non-contentious matters, they are doing business and they need Manx lawyers and, when something goes wrong, they need Manx lawyers because the dispute may be covered by local law. I’m dealing with America, the Far East and clients in Europe almost on a daily basis.’


The local legal market is buoyant, reckons Andrew Corlett. He says: ‘If the major metropolitan financial areas are busy, then the Isle of Man is busy. We are plugged into the world’s financial systems.’