Certain members of the European Parliament had already made up their mind about us.

That’s the view of Chief Minister Howard Quayle following a visit to the island by a special committee of MEPs looking at financial crime, tax evasion and tax avoidance.

Chairman of the TAX3 committee Petr Ježek MEP told the Examiner during the visit: ’It’s true that tax avoidance, tax evasion and to some extent money laundering is related to places where there is a very low rate, or zero rate, of tax.’

The visit by the MEPs came as Brussels urged the UK to take action over ’abusive practices’ in the VAT treatment of corporate jets imported into the EU via the island, concerns first raised last year in the wake of the Paradise Papers leak.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle said the committee had already published its draft report ahead of its mission to the Isle of Man. Findings from the visit will appear in an appendix to the full report when it is published.

Mr Quayle said: ’Certain members had made up their own minds.’

One of those he was referring to was Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy who claimed Appleby, the law firm at the centre of the Paradise Papers revelations, had snubbed the MEPs’ visit.

Mr Quayle said: ’He tried to make out that they had cancelled at the last minute.

’But Appleby told them the week before that they would not be meeting them.’

Among the areas under the spotlight of the TAX3 special committee during its visit was the island’s e-gaming sector.

Mr Ježek argues that companies doing online gaming ’don’t come here because of the higher regulation but because of the tax rate’.

But the Chief Minister insisted: ’We were able to point out to the committee that the Isle of Man has the gold standard when it comes to the regulation of e-gaming.’

Mr Quayle said the island has tax information sharing agreements with every EU country and it has signed up to an OECD agreement on base erosion and profit shifting.

He said: ’If the profits are made on a business based in Germany or the Czech Republic that’s where they pay the tax on those profits.’

The European Commission has issued infringement proceedings over the ’abusive’ VAT practices relating to corporate jets imported into the EU via the island - and given the UK two months to respond.

TAX3’s draft report calls on the European Commission and Eurofisc to ’rapidly conclude their investigations on the Isle of Man’s VAT collection practices on private yachts and aircraft, as revealed by the Paradise Papers; and, if necessary, to open infringement procedures.’