The Isle of Man is located in the middle of the Irish Sea, 83 miles from Liverpool and 90 miles from Belfast. There are frequent flights to a number of UK airports. The Island has a resident population of around 80,000 roughly half being Manx born and the rest largely British, although an increasingly varied mix of nationalities are moving here to work in the financial and service industries. The capital town is Douglas, the seat of the Manx Government and main centre of population.
The Isle of Man is an English speaking dependency of the British crown but has never formed part of the United Kingdom. The Isle is politically stable and enjoys parliamentary government without party politics. Its 1,000 year-old parliament, Tynwald presides over the Island’s domestic affairs including specifically, taxation. Britain is responsible for the Island’s defense and foreign affairs. The island forms part of the EU single market and VAT area but is otherwise not part of the EU fiscal area. The Isle of Man has an English common law type legal system and tends to follow English legislation. There is an infrastructure of sophisticated legal and other professional services. The Isle has a Financial Supervision Commission with a great deal of experience in overseeing and regulating sensitive financial areas. The island’s currency is the pound and there are no exchange controls.