It’s was with great relief that the tax authorities in the Isle of Man found out last night that they weren’t on the OECD tax haven list. There’s been work over the last couple of years to make sure we don’t get blacklisted and the announcement was the culmination of all their efforts.

These are the countries that were given the all clear:

• Argentina
• Australia
• Barbados
• Canada
• China
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Guernsey
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Italy
• Japan
• Jersey
• Korea
• Malta
• Mauritius
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russian Federation
• Seychelles
• Slovak Republic
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States
• US Virgin Islands

Some were expected but there are some interesting development there; what I find particularly interesting is that countries like Luxenbourg and Switzerland just didn’t make the list. So what does the result really mean? Well, the good news is that the Isle of Man can keep enjoying the fruits of hosting the segment of financial services it currently does and may even get some new business. If however we haven’t made the list, it could have proved disastrous to the Island’s financial sector; a bit like getting a truck rental and driving through a field of poppies; there wouldn’t be much left by the time you came out the other end.