The Phantom

So the famous Jaffa cake VAT case... I love this. The judgement didn't really have anything to do with chocolate. It was based on the fact that standard meal food (for want of a better description) doesn't have VAT on it. So anything you would normally eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner. This INCLUDES cake (and therefore chocolate cake), as it is dessert and therefore part of an actual meal. However, snacks or luxury food do have VAT. Biscuits aren't part of a meal and therefore are charged VAT. The case deemed that Jaffa Cakes were indeed cake (clues in the name, but I think the decider was that cake goes hard when stale, but biscuits go soft) therefore no VAT needed to be charged.

I've got a nespresso and it makes me look like George Clooney! Coffee is surprisingly good (including espressos) and there is a huge selection of types of coffee depending on your preference. I generally have about 4 or 5 different types of coffee on the go depending on flavour, region, strength etc. They are also good from a convenience point of view. Stick a pod in, press a button, go and do something else for 2/3 mins, come back and you've got a cup of coffee waiting for you. They work out about 50p a cup and to be honest are on par (if not better) than most of the coffee shops over here. Allegedly you can recycle them - not tried it yet, but I do have a bin bag full of them, with the intention of doing this at some point...

Yep they do have fibre hooked straight into their offices. I'm pretty certain the servers are on the rock. I'm not 100% au faire with the techie stuff, but I have been into both Continent8 and Domicilium buildings where there is a shit load of servers, hosting and some seriously heavy duty kit. Both are really cool - starship enterprise stuff with retinal scanners etc.

Sadly I would imagine this is exactly the case. "You're free to move over guys. But you can only bring the furniture you can fit in your car and you'll also have to wait 14 days before you can feed yourselves, have a phone line etc etc"

I know in theory they could. But surely they would have to move into a completely empty house? The removal company could not come over with all their belongings, unless they were willing to do a 14 day isolation. Also the new owners would probably have to bring all their supplies (food etc) over themselves as they couldn't go shopping and getting deliveries sorted when you have only just moved in would be tricky. Plus how would getting the utility guys in work if you were supposed to be in isolation?

The village in the mist has had quite a lot of housing activity actually too. Couple of houses have come off the market - people deciding to stay. A couple of houses have gone on the market in the last week and there have been at least 2 sales completed since lockdown was raised. Annoyingly for one person, the sale of one property to someone from the UK was completed just before our borders closed. The vendors moved out obviously, but it's been vacant since as the purchasers can't get over!

I must learn to be more specific.... Donors - the odd liver or heart etc. Shipped out via the jet centre, as they obviously can't sit around waiting for a delayed commercial flight.

Ha, yeah sorry. I mean ice boxes full of body parts!! Macabre, but kinda interesting.

I've had an interesting mix actually. True UK residents/domiciled just looking to move here and get a job; 'foreigners' currently resident in the UK but looking to move somewhere similar and either set up a business or get a job in our existing market or be self employed in some form and yes, true foreigners that will require full visas etc. Hopefully some of them will follow through, as some of the businesses they are planning on setting up are quite interesting. Although the closed borders could provide an awkward literal roadblock!!

Some of the flights from the Private Jet Centre have been medical - supplies, key personnel, and even organs...

Sorry to break the negativity, but this is true. The reality is that the Govt are not even aware of a large majority of the enquiries to move here, as until the potential new residents actually decide to push the go button, Govt has zero involvement. A lot of this is the private sector selling the Island. I work in Business Development in the Finance sector and have seen a huge increase in the number of people considering moving to the Island. Figures... no idea, but the last couple of years it was not something I discussed with clients very often - maybe a couple of times a year. Now it seems to be every other person I speak to, so at least a couple a week. I also know that various lawyers and tax advisors over here are in a similar position. Corona has undoubtedly caused a surge of interest. The fact that we seem to have managed our outbreak quite well (it seems to be known worldwide) and that the lockdown has demonstrated across the board that remote working is a genuinely viable option. If you don't have to live in a big city, with all the trauma associated, then why do it? And before anyone spouts up, many of these enquiries are looking to take advantage of the entrepreneur or investor visas - thereby creating businesses and employment on the Island.

I was hoping they just leave the door to the safe wide open!

Monday - Ramsey, Castletown and Athol street are all back to normal opening hours. Regent St self service only weirdly. Peel and Port Erin remaining closed. But yeah as has been said elsewhere, true local businesses are pretty much free to crack on and open. The international businesses with offices over here have a bit of an issue that most other countries are still realistically in lock-down of some sort, so they have to make an exception for the IOM, which generally isn't worth it. This is actually happening to Mrs Phantom - whilst most of her office want to go back into the office, as her company is international, they still aren't making a call when they will re-open the office, as they want to re-open all offices worldwide at the same time.

There is a Euro 500 note. It's not issued since last year, but is still legal tender. It is however a money-launderers dream. You can fit Euro 1,000,000 in a cornflake box and it would only weigh 2kgs!!! Hence why they stopped being produced and were known as 'Bin Ladens'.

Typically, I don't remember the last time I needed to pay in a cheque, but have had a couple to pay in over the Corona shut down from non IT savvy people and the queues have been 30 odd people long every time I've been. I've actually only used the automated machine for cheques - why can't they have a weatherproof one outside like normal cash machines? On a separate yet related note, did you know that Isle of Man Bank is company number 1 on the Companies Registry over here?