A curious tale is unfolding in the Isle of Man.

It passed its new tax legislation that, among other things introduces a 0% corporation tax rate, in March. Then they sent it to the UK for approval as is required as the Queen is the Lord of Mann.

In April they expected approval by the end of the month.

In May when I asked them they were confident they'd get approval by the end of May.

Now it's June and they're only hoping that they'll get approval by the end of this month.

They claim this is normal, but as yet have not provided evidence to support that claim. Nor is any explanation available for the failure of their previous confidence.

Or could it be that the UK government is in fact very worried that the Isle of Man's proposals for "look through" taxation on shareholders so that they pay the tax on the profits of the companies they own do not in fact comply with the EU Code of Conduct on Business Taxation, as I suggested last year, and with which opinion PWC concurred in January this year in a change of heart on their part when telling Guernsey not to go down this route, having previosuly told Jersey it was OK to do so?

If the new laws don't comply with the Code it will be the UK's job to report that fact to the EU Code of Conduct Group, whose chair happens to be Dawn Primarolo, the long serving UK Paymatser General. And that would not be fun.