TTM06350 - Relevant shipping profits: Vessels providing transport for services necessarily provided at sea

FA00/SCH22/PARA19 (1)(d) provides that a sea going ship of 100 gross tons or more used for transport by sea in connection with services of a kind necessarily provided at sea is a qualifying ship for tonnage tax.

Guidance on the types of activities undertaken by vessels to which this provision refers can be found at TTM03570.

If a ship is engaged in a PARA19 (1)(d) activity, all the income from a time charter for the ship will be included in the tonnage tax ring fence.

However, if the contract or charter for the ship includes any service that is not necessarily provided at sea (for example land based activities, see TTM03610) then the income that relates the service not necessarily provided at sea will not be within tonnage tax.  These non tonnage tax activities will include such things as onshore support or engineering work undertaken by onshore engineers.  In this situation the only income which will be within tonnage tax is the income that relates to the transport by sea in connection with services of a kind necessarily provided at sea, namely the transport and service provided at sea.

This interpretation is a change of view that was announced in Revenue & Customs brief 42/09, published on 21 July 2009.