How to pay Tonnage Tax if you're a shipping company
How to pay Tonnage Tax if you manage your ships from the UK and they weigh 100 tons or more.
Overview
Tonnage Tax is a form of Corporation Tax, for working out the tax you owe on your profits.
You can choose to pay Tonnage Tax on a fixed notional profit, instead of your actual profits from your shipping activities. This is based on the net tonnage of your ships.
Qualifying conditions
You may be able to choose to pay Tonnage Tax if:
- you’re a qualifying company
- you have qualifying ships
- you meet certain obligations to train seafarers
Elect to use Tonnage Tax
You can elect to use Tonnage Tax but you must sign up for a minimum of 8 years.
You can make a renewal election on a rolling basis to extend the original election. You’ll not be able to renew your election if you do not renew it within the 8 year period.
Get help or more information
Read the Tonnage Tax manual for more information.
You can contact the HMRC Tonnage Tax technical adviser by:
- email: tonnagetax@hmrc.gov.uk
- phone: 03000 585 490
- post:
Large Business
S1755
Newcastle
NE98 1ZZ
Updates to this page
Published 13 December 2011Last updated 12 December 2024 + show all updates
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Information about ships not registered in the UK, Gibraltar, European Union or European Economic Area has been removed.
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The email contact address for help or more information has been updated.
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The postal address for the HMRC tonnage tax technical adviser has been updated.
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This guidance has been updated to include information about the registration of vessels in the UK and Gibraltar.
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Contact details for the HMRC tonnage tax technical adviser have been updated.
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The year 2019 has been added to the list of excepted years.
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The 'Overview', 'Elect to use tonnage tax' and 'Excepted years' sections have been updated following legislative changes.
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Under heading Excepted years, the no years excepted period is now 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2018.
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First published.