The Isle of Man government will officially sign up to international agreements on the automatic exchange of tax information by the start of next year.

Prior to the G8 summit in June this year, the Isle of Man made a formal commitment to join the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, which has been jointly developed by the OECD and the Council of Europe.

In a letter to the OECD secretary general with an update on progress, the Isle of Man treasury minister Eddie Teare said the Manx Government will be asking the UK government to extend the application of the multilateral convention to the Isle of Man shortly.

Subject to Tynwald (the Manx Parliament) approving enabling legislation in October, the Island of Man will begin applying the regulations from the beginning of 2014.

Chief minister Allan Bell said: 'The Isle of Man has led the way in building an extensive network of bilateral tax information exchange agreements around the world, so joining the multilateral convention is a logical step for us. The convention makes it easier for developing countries to benefit from tax information exchange, and as a responsible international business centre it is important that we support this significant global instrument.'