Profitable Peripherals: Maximising the potential of British CDOTs

• A new paper from the Adam Smith Institute argues that the UK should use its offshore network to embrace financial and technological innovation;

• Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories (CDOTs) have unique ties to the UK and generally maintain much lower tax rates;

• Crown Dependencies, like Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, are self-governing, with the UK managing their defence and international affairs;

• British Overseas Territories, such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Gibraltar, are former colonies. Though they are also self-governing, the UK holds greater legislative power compared to Crown Dependencies;

• While they are unfairly labelled as tax havens, these jurisdictions are net contributors to the UK economy, ranking us our 9th largest export market and channelling investment capital into both UK businesses and infrastructure;

• Exploiting our Brexit freedoms, politicians should work with CDOTs to boost growth and bring opportunity to the UK;

• This paper outlines a number of suggestions including strengthening the presence of British banks in the Overseas Territories, promoting CDOTs as regulatory and technological innovation hubs and offering the Shetlands Islands Crown Dependency status - turbocharging its space and green finance industries.