Reducing the tax you pay when on your boat

So far as I'm aware there's no specific reason why a floating home and fixed one should be treated any differently in this respect. However, a year or so ago another thread posed much the same question. The consensus was, don't go there; more trouble than it's worth. Not least, claiming a leisure craft as a business expense is inclined to raise the hackles at HMRC who tend to respond by asking lots of questions which might be better left un-aired. They'd also expect you to show very clearly that the 'business', whatever it was, wasn't a scam.

On the other hand, I did for a few years claim boat-related expenses (not as office space) with the Manx treasury, although the relationship between boat expenditure and related income was strong and clear.

Besides, I thought you lot got healthy pensions ;)
 
I looked at this a few years ago with my accountant and unlike Southern Europe (where boats are treated like any other bit of useful property) there wasn't much incentive to make it a company asset and HRMC would be all over the company once the word, "boat" was mentioned.

Looking at offsetting some costs for perhaps a floating office for our business, for loss making corporate away days (we have many friends who are also possible clients), for an advertising feature for our business (on new spinnaker perhaps) etc. etc.

But basically all the wheezes wouldn't work in the UK unless the main business of the company was genuinely sailing related and no use of it was made outside that business.
 
Nostrodamus said:
But if you liveaboard and have no other property then your boat is also your buisness address?
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Would that it were so easy.

I wrote a long e-mail, but there were so many ifs and buts I deleted it. You could talk to an accountant (as I guess you're outside the UK you'd need one with knowledge of both the local tax system and the UK's). You'd probably just be wasting your money.

You could set up a genuine business in the country you're in and maybe claim a few allowances against that income, but that's probably the best you could do. Beware also that the local tax authorities might start to pay attention to your UK income if your head gets too far above the parapet. Usually there are double taxation treaties but a mate was caught out working in two countries that didn't have one and he genuinely ended up paying tax on the same income in both (ouch!).
 
As far as I can see it is a akin to running the same business from a house which is your primary residence. You may get some allowances for business costs but it would be a relatively small proportion of your housing costs. If this was not the case everyone in the UK would be starting website business' or similar from their homes and claim housing costs.
 
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Nostrodamus said:
But if you liveaboard and have no other property then your boat is also your buisness address?
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That is not what my wife says, she is a member of two accountancy institutions so knows far more than me.

I am planning to move from full time employment to a more flexible way of working in a few years but all the business activity will be conducted from something on terra firma as I really, really do not want to get into a long argument with HMRC.
 
colind3782 said:
The three best ways of contacting HMRC:

1. By phone
2. By email
3. Buy a boat
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:-)

When we asked our accountant about the possibility of making our boat a business expense she told us that if we did, she would invite us to take our business elsewhere - it would simply be too much trouble.
 
Nostrodamus said:
But if you liveaboard and have no other property then your boat is also your buisness address?
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See the many threads on liveaboard link about using your boat as an official address for anything if you don't have a recognised residential mooring. If you're a liveaboard with a business you have to have a business address which you either pay for or use the address of a relative or friend.

Your "claiming all sorts": are you asking about legitimate expenses within the spirit of tax laws or dodgy scamming of the tax system which some people do?
 
If you can claim in the same way as running a business from your house (which I very much doubt anyway) it really is not worth it. I did it for about 20 years when I did independent consultancy work and seem to remember the amount of tax I saved was around £100 a year, including depreciation on my computer. My accountant just entered what he thought they would accept and then just repeated it every year.

If you did start a business and declared your income (as I am sure you would) I expect it would open a can of worms you would rather keep closed.
 
Nostrodamus said:
How about writing a book or website development?
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I wrote two books on my last boat and didn't consider for a moment claiming any of the boat as a workplace, mainly because of the hassle (and limited returns on the hassle); but also because there was nowhere on the boat I could convincingly claim was dedicated to work. If the workspace also sees private use, any tax allowance vanishes proportionally, if not completely.

Maybe if either of the books' titles had begun "Harry Potter and..." it would have been different ;)
 
I might be dense (please don't answer that..) but isn't your problem the tax situation in where you are practicing the business? OK, you might move on frequently, so avoid the 180 day residency in any given country, but, does that make you a UK resident and able to write off your expenses for UK tax? Doubtful. MCD, above, has it, as are you not writing a cruising guide?
 
>I was reading the article below on getting tax reduced.
If you run a small business from your home you can claim all sorts.

The self employed pay less tax on income details of what is involved are here: https://www.gov.uk/topic/business-tax/self-employed There are no 'claim all sorts' everything is determined by what you do. For eaxample I set up two businesses and with both of them we paid relatively low salaries and high dividends which are taxed less than salaries. Where you work doesn't matter. The URL you posted is American so the tax infomation mentioned is irrelevant here.
 
First of all with HMRC you are not using a boat but a luxury yacht. Secondly to own a luxury yacht you must have lots of money and fiddling your tax.

Thirdly any business MUST be set up with the intention of earning a profit.

I was chartering through a charter company and HMRC cost me £10,000 after their view on the rules differed from my accountants. It would have cost more had they not seen that it was my accountants work that was in error.
 
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