CG60283 - Reliefs: Replacement of Business Assets (Roll-over Relief): Qualifying Assets: Ships, Aircraft, Hovercraft, Satellites, Space Stations and Spacecraft

In the absence of a statutory definition, the words ships', aircraft’, ‘satellites’, ‘space stations’ and ‘spacecraft’ take their ordinary everyday meaning. It is accepted that aircraft' includes aeroplanes, helicopters, airships and hot air balloons. It is also accepted that ships’ includes vessels such as fishing boats, motorised cruisers and yachts. The interpretation adopted is to apply the definition of ship contained in Section 742 Merchant Shipping Act 1894 which is:

• `… every description of vessel used in navigation not propelled by oars.’

TCGA92/S155 specifies that ‘hovercraft’ is as defined in the Hovercraft Act 1968, being:

• ‘a vehicle which is designed to be supported when in motion wholly or partly by air expelled from the vehicle to form a cushion of which the boundaries include the ground, water or other surface beneath the vehicle’