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The Isle of Man is set to sign a comprehensive double tax agreement with Belgium and one other European country, a government official has said.

Speaking at a press briefing this week, the Isle of Man's deputy assessor of income tax, Paul Martin, said the island would be signing the agreements shortly.

"We would prefer to be signing double tax agreements rather than tax information exchange agreements," he said.

In May the Isle of Man signed a DTA with Estonia. It was the first arrangement with a European member state since the UK agreement in 1955.

He blamed the hesitancy of other countries for the lack of DTAs, saying the Isle of Man welcomed them.

Despite his preference for more comprehensive agreements, Martin said the island would not stop signing TIEAs just because it had reached the OECD's minimum requirement of 12.

He said the Isle of Man will be signing an information exchange agreement with New Zealand before the end of the summer.

It will be the island's 15th agreement. It most recently signed one with France in March.

John Spellman, director of Isle of Man Finance, said that information exchange agreements were just the beginning of the tax compliance journey. Double tax agreements and automatic exchange of information will be the next stage in the process.

"TIEAs are the appropriate currency for now but the debate will move forward," he said. "We welcome a level playing field when it comes to automatic information exchange. If small countries can do it, why can't big countries."

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