The island has been blacklisted by the Dutch government.

We are one of 21 low-tax jurisdictions named on a ’stringent blacklist’ by the Ministry of Finance in the Netherlands as part of a move against tax avoidance.

The list contains five jurisdictions currently blacklisted by the European Union: American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, Samoa, and Trinidad and Tobago.

But it includes another 16 low-tax jurisdictions: Anguilla, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey, the Cayman Islands, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Vanuatu and the United Arab Emirates.

All either have zero corporate tax or a rate lower than 9%.

A notable absence from the list is Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles, which was one of the first offshore centres and offers low rates of tax for offshore companies.

It also conveniently ignores the Netherlands' role in tax planning via the infamous 'double Irish with a Dutch sandwich' arrangement, in which a combination of Irish and Dutch subsidiaries are used to shift profits to low or no tax jurisdictions.

The Manx government has had a tax information exchange agreement with the Netherlands since July 2006.

But Dutch State Secretary for Finance Menno Snel said: ’By drawing up its own stringent blacklist, the Netherlands is once again showing it is serious in its fight against tax avoidance.

’And that’s just one of the steps we’re taking.’

The list will be used to implement a conditional withholding tax on interest and royalties.

A measure on controlled foreign companies comes in on New Year’s Day which aims to prevent companies avoiding tax by moving mobile assets to low-tax jurisdictions.