Commercial
Trading Companies
The
Isle of Man has encouraged commercial activity
and manufacturing, especially in high technology,
taking advantage of its physical location alongside
the UK and the EU.
The
Government offers capital grants of 40% of the
costs of new buildings or improvements in buildings
and of new machinery and plant, including energy
conservation work, and consultancy costs. There
are operating grants of 40% of non-recurring
first-year costs and of marketing expense for
new ventures; and up to 50% of training costs.
There
is a wide variety of offshore company formats
to choose from to suit all purposes. For a company
importing or trading in physical goods in the
EU, an offshore company form can be combined
with a base in the Ronaldsway
Freeport to give a very effective result.
The island's inclusion in the EU's VAT regime
is also helpful in many trading situations.
Along
with other offshore jurisdictions, the Isle
of Man is a suitable place in which to base
e-commerce services for retail or wholesale
distribution of material or non-material goods.
For a company with B2C or B2B trading operations
in high-tax countries, large parts of its sales,
marketing and procurement activities can be
based in a low-tax area such as the Isle of
Man. Distribution of physical goods in high-tax
areas can be outsourced or can be handled locally,
while distribution of digital goods (eg software
or music) can of course be undertaken locally.
Corporate structures can be adjusted so that
profits do not have to be remitted to the high-tax
jurisdiction.
See
Offshore-e-com.com
for extended descriptions of how such businesses
can take advantage of the combination of offshore
and e-commerce and see E-Commerce
in the Isle of Man for a thorough description
of the current stage of development of e-commerce
on the island.
