National Yachtline - HMRC
- Thread starter alant
- Start date
skip50
Well-Known Member
I came in from Guernsey last summer at about 0200. Phoned Yachtline to report arrival at my home berth, got asked a couple of questions, was told I was cleared and could take down my Q fllag. About ten minutes later my mobile rang, it was the chap (sounded about 16) I had just spoken to, 'I have just been told that Guernsey is not in the EU, I have a couple more questions for you.'
Doesn't inspire huge confidence, does it?
Doesn't inspire huge confidence, does it?
SimonP85
Well-Known Member
Called them last week after returning from Alderney. Quick call, no waiting and pleasant operator.
sailorman
Well-Known Member
as most of us use mobile`s why dont they post a land line number
Talulah
Well-Known Member
I noticed that. It will cost to call that number via a mobile.
I suspect very few will even bother.
sailorman
Well-Known Member
Quite so, that will be a general call centre number
Sybarite
Well-Known Member
If you sail into French territorial waters, then you are returning from France...??
Angele
Well-Known Member
I don't think so. I think you actually need to call into a French port (e.g. Cherbourg) for that to be the case. Simply passing through doesn't count. May do to French customs (who then believe they have the right to board you), but not to HMRC/Border Force.
Out of interest, is it possible to sail from Alderney back to England without entering French waters? Does France recognise the sovereignty of CI waters and, if so, where is the boundary?
macd
Well-Known Member
If you sail into French territorial waters, and clear in to their satisfaction, then you are returning from France.
sailorman
Well-Known Member
The border lot cant even keep foreigners out how are they coing to cope with an influx of returning legitimate Nationals
halb
Well-Known Member
This is yet another step towards the UK becoming a police state, where will it end?
Jon
Jon
prv
Well-Known Member
Yet another?
It's not new, it's worked this way for decades. Before that (so I read, it's before my time) you had to clear in with an actual customs man in a peaked cap coming on board your boat and examining the duty free.
Pete
Stork_III
Well-Known Member
Why? This is not a new requirement, you have always needed to clear customs when arriving back in UK waters, but now not needed if coming from EU.
Talulah
Well-Known Member
The trouble is it seems so pointless. It's a bit like answering the questions at check-in. You respond with the standard answers.
It would be better if boats returning from the Channel Islands were not required to check in unless certain criteria were met. Otherwise the number of people not bothering just devalues the whole process.
Robin
Well-Known Member
We always stopped overnight in Cherbourg on our way home to top up the wines and gin ( cheaper than GY) as well as to avoid any need to clear customs back in Poole, by re-entering the eU in France where they generally don't care about Brits arriving from the islands and actually get miffed at those pedants who fly 'Q' and thereby force them to get out from the office
it also meant we could set off home at an hour to suit us not to time our passage through Alderney Race.
Seajet
...
Pete,
I remember it and I'm not that old !
The visiting Customs guys I met were all nice guys, and very skilled at chatting while extracting a good few glasses of any wine one might have brought back...
More often one would make the obligatory phone call, dutifully stay on board for the 2 hours so miss closing time, and they didn't turn up...
Robin
Well-Known Member
we had one go through nearly a bottle of my duty free scotch ( when Monsieur Gueurin was open for 'proper' duty free) but at least he then missed the fact that we had had a brand new VAT free radar fitted in GY that sported all it's control labels in French until we could order the English ones later. After that because SWMBO needed also to clear immigration ( outbound and inbound) as a Yank, we got to know the local ones quite well and if they saw us coming in as we frequently did from X-Channel weekenders, they would come alongside us going in the Swash and clear us immediately so we didn't have to sit around two hours.
VicMallows
Well-Known Member
Precisely what many of us do.....but I do have this nagging suspicion that any goods bought outside the EU are still technically liable for duty?? However I don't think Alderney will let you buy more than the traditional 200 + 1lt per person, and will you have any left anyway by the time you get home
prv
Well-Known Member
Yes, but the duty is payable wherever you re-enter the EU, so if the French consider you cleared in then it should be covered, I would think.
Pete
Robin
Well-Known Member
That is my understanding too. I once asked hmrc at a boatshow if returning via france meant no need to clear and was told they preferred you to clear back in on the C1338(?) form and call them anyway 'because the French were not too good at doing their job', 'not my problem' I said.......
