An audience of island clients and members of the business community packed in to the Claremont Hotel, Douglas, for KPMG’s latest tax seminar.

After an introduction from KPMG Isle of Man’s head of tax, Greg Jones, the timetable for the next steps in the UK’s parliamentary process as regards Brexit was outlined by Paul Cawley, head of indirect tax, before considering some of the implications of Brexit (in whatever form it finally assumes) in the world of VAT and customs duties.

Mr Cawley handed over to David Parsons, tax director, who outlined some of the key announcements coming out of what was a fairly quiet Manx Budget, at least as far as tax matters were concerned.

Highlights included the welcome introduction of a national insurance holiday scheme, which will hopefully appeal to students considering returning to the island, and a further increase in the personal allowance.

Mr Parsons moved on to update the audience on the current position concerning the Isle of Man’s ’substance requirements’, which are set to impact companies operating in a wide variety of sectors, but most significantly those holding intellectual property.

Next up was Robert Rotherham, associate tax director, whose presentation focused on the ever-changing tax rules concerning UK property and, specifically, the expansion of the scope of UK corporation tax to ’non-resident landlords’.

Mr Rotherham explained that this key development, which takes effect from April 6, 2020, has a number of implications for offshore companies generating rental income from UK investment property, not least the potential impact of the UK’s loss relief and corporate interest restriction rules.

Clare Kelly, senior tax manager, then alerted the audience to the fact that the income tax division have recently begun reviews of filings made under the Common Reporting Standard regime and explained some of the common errors that have been identified to date.

The morning’s final subject matter was the UK’s Finance Act 2019, of which Greg Jones provided a summary from an Isle of Man perspective.

Mr Jones began by describing one of the more significant measures, namely the extension of the scope of non-resident capital gains tax to disposals of commercial property with effect from April 6, 2019 (residential property disposals already being within scope).

Other key developments include the proposed introduction of a digital services tax, a further increase in stamp duty land tax on purchases by non-UK residents of residential property in England and Northern Ireland and the finalisation of a new UK/Isle of Man double tax agreement, replacing an original which dates back to 1955.

All of this goes to show that the pace of change in the world of tax continues to increase and thus the need to seek early advice is arguably more pressing now than it ever was.