Hundreds of business people packed into the Sanderson suite of the Claremont Hotel for KPMG Isle of Man’s latest tax seminars on Friday 25th and Tuesday 29th March. The professional services firm hosts seminars on a regular basis throughout the year to review recent and upcoming changes in tax law. These extremely popular events are held on alternative dates to allow for high attendance, on this occasion estimated at almost three hundred and fifty people over both dates. The seminars were split into a number of sections presented by experts in particular fields from KPMG Isle of Man. It started with a review of the UK and Manx 2011 budgets presented by David Parsons. He concentrated on the more recent UK budget, stating that “It was clearly quite a populist budget from the Chancellor’s perspective… the key thing is that it is the banks and the oil companies that are paying for the cut in fuel duty and the rise in personal allowances.” Highlighting issues of particular concern for the Island, Greg Jones pointed out the possible introduction of a new statutory residence test for individuals, changes to the rules for non-domiciliaries, the consultation on a general anti-avoidance rule and anti-treaty shopping provisions. However, he said that “Overall it is a fairly neutral budget for the Isle of Man - there isn’t too much bad news there.” This session was then followed by more specific areas of interest or concern presented by other experts, although every speaker was careful to avoid becoming overly technical due to what was a highly mixed audience of different professions. Harley Richards spoke on issues surrounding disguised remuneration and Sandra Skuszka provided the audience with an update on changes to VAT. Kevin Loundes covered accounting standards and tax and Greg Jones himself finished with a session on UK tax planning involving companies. Commenting on how well-received the seminars were, Greg Jones added: “As always, both dates were extremely well attended. I think it’s a testament to the knowledge of our experts that so many people would turn up to a two hour seminar on tax law first thing in the morning, and as far as I am aware not a single person fell asleep! In all seriousness, I hope everyone who attended took something away from the morning.” -ENDS-