ParaHandy
Active member
As he continually reminds us, two jags is the saviour of the UK marine industry. “UK flagged tonnage triples to 9m tonnes” was his most recent boast. hmmm ….
here’s the MCA CEO a few months earlier launching, again for Hatsu, another ship in Japan. Two jags splashes a bit of credit around “much of this (increase in UK flag) is due to the work of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, set up in 1998 with the specific objective to increase the number of ships flying the Red Ensign”. Job well done, obviously, and when Storey retired in August last year, he joined the same Taiwanese cpy UK affiliate as Chairman … good luck to him, I say …. And would you believe the name of his successor at the MCA? Capt Bligh … an ex-Nedloyd container ship man … we’re well in there …
the truth is that its nothing to do with the MCA. Hatsu is taking advantage of the optional tonnage tax regime that offers a simpler way of calculating taxable profits. The ‘notional profit’ on either vessel (90,000 tonnes) is about £60k a year or £18k in tax due to the UK. Good, eh? Ah but, Two Jags keeps banging on about how many UK (actually, he means to say EU but forgets) extra jobs are going to be created. Sadly, his own union, the RMT, don’t agree and I suppose they should know. Mere detail … there’s all those strategic and commercial management jobs created for a few like .. erm … retired marine regulators
Anyway, the total UK tax collected from shipping was reckoned to be £20m in 1999 or 1.5% (against 15-30% for other UK corporations) tax rate so all this extra tonnage ought to mean lots of money flowing into UK coffers but at an effective tax rate of £18k for 90,000 tonnes would imply that ol’ Two Jags has to get not 9m but 80m UK flagged tonnes on the register so some other b*ggers will have to pay for the buoys etc that all these ships get the benefit of for free now, virtually … yup, us yins are the mugs ….
I have a thought though that the Light dues crowd could smarten their act up a bit, make the tax a bit more pleasant you know, by sticking a mobile phone in (major) navigational mark with a weather station attached so you could ring the buoy up for current weather conditions? Some lady’s voice such as Kiri Te Banana’s giving the details in an aria format would be nice, don’t you think?
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here’s the MCA CEO a few months earlier launching, again for Hatsu, another ship in Japan. Two jags splashes a bit of credit around “much of this (increase in UK flag) is due to the work of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, set up in 1998 with the specific objective to increase the number of ships flying the Red Ensign”. Job well done, obviously, and when Storey retired in August last year, he joined the same Taiwanese cpy UK affiliate as Chairman … good luck to him, I say …. And would you believe the name of his successor at the MCA? Capt Bligh … an ex-Nedloyd container ship man … we’re well in there …
the truth is that its nothing to do with the MCA. Hatsu is taking advantage of the optional tonnage tax regime that offers a simpler way of calculating taxable profits. The ‘notional profit’ on either vessel (90,000 tonnes) is about £60k a year or £18k in tax due to the UK. Good, eh? Ah but, Two Jags keeps banging on about how many UK (actually, he means to say EU but forgets) extra jobs are going to be created. Sadly, his own union, the RMT, don’t agree and I suppose they should know. Mere detail … there’s all those strategic and commercial management jobs created for a few like .. erm … retired marine regulators
Anyway, the total UK tax collected from shipping was reckoned to be £20m in 1999 or 1.5% (against 15-30% for other UK corporations) tax rate so all this extra tonnage ought to mean lots of money flowing into UK coffers but at an effective tax rate of £18k for 90,000 tonnes would imply that ol’ Two Jags has to get not 9m but 80m UK flagged tonnes on the register so some other b*ggers will have to pay for the buoys etc that all these ships get the benefit of for free now, virtually … yup, us yins are the mugs ….
I have a thought though that the Light dues crowd could smarten their act up a bit, make the tax a bit more pleasant you know, by sticking a mobile phone in (major) navigational mark with a weather station attached so you could ring the buoy up for current weather conditions? Some lady’s voice such as Kiri Te Banana’s giving the details in an aria format would be nice, don’t you think?
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