Practical Boat Owner April 2023

PBO’s practical community Being a skipper of a boat means the responsibility is yours; you decide the passage and lead the crew. For PBO, the time has come for a new pair of hands at the helm after the excellent job Alison Wood has done over the last 15 months. Ali will still remain very much part of the team here as a features editor, but will now have more time on the water! I’m excited to be joining the PBO crew, and proud of the community feel the magazine generates. Each issue that community grows as more and more of you get in touch to ask questions from our dedicated team of experts or share your stories (please do keep them coming in). Readers have always been at the very heart of…

Cruising Association (CA), president Derek Lumb said: “The CA is bewildered as to why people who bought boats in Europe and paid VAT on those boats should now be discriminated against in this way. This intransigence by HMRC is deeply disappointing and a further obstacle for the cruising community.” He added: “The CA’s Regulatory and Technical Services (RATS) group will be requesting transparency as to the grounds on which this decision was made and the logic behind it. It will be difficult to overcome the decision, but RATS will continue to challenge it.” RYA cruising manager Stuart Carruthers said: “The government had the RYA proposal to rectify a wrong of its making since January 2022 following our successful lobbying to secure an easement of the three-year RGR condition. In light of the…

PBO’s practical community Being a skipper of a boat means the responsibility is yours; you decide the passage and lead the crew. For PBO, the time has come for a new pair of hands at the helm after the excellent job Alison Wood has done over the last 15 months. Ali will still remain very much part of the team here as a features editor, but will now have more time on the water! I’m excited to be joining the PBO crew, and proud of the community feel the magazine generates. Each issue that community grows as more and more of you get in touch to ask questions from our dedicated team of experts or share your stories (please do keep them coming in). Readers have always been at the…

British cruisers abroad are feeling the effects of a ruling that requires UK sailors who bought and kept their yachts in the European Union (EU) before Brexit to pay value-added tax (VAT) for a second time if they bring their boats back to the UK. It follows the government’s rejection of a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) proposal to allow recreational boat owners, established in the UK, who lawfully purchased and kept their boat in the EU when the UK was an EU member, to be eligible for Returned Goods Relief (RGR). The Cruising Association (CA) described His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) decision as ‘the end of the road for any hope of a positive outcome’. Despite HMRC statements in April 2019 and November 2020 that UK-owned boats would retain…

British cruisers abroad are feeling the effects of a ruling that requires UK sailors who bought and kept their yachts in the European Union (EU) before Brexit to pay value-added tax (VAT) for a second time if they bring their boats back to the UK. It follows the government’s rejection of a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) proposal to allow recreational boat owners, established in the UK, who lawfully purchased and kept their boat in the EU when the UK was an EU member, to be eligible for Returned Goods Relief (RGR). The Cruising Association (CA) described His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) decision as ‘the end of the road for any hope of a positive outcome’. Despite HMRC statements in April 2019 and November 2020 that UK-owned boats would retain their UK VAT…

Cruising Association (CA), president Derek Lumb said: “The CA is bewildered as to why people who bought boats in Europe and paid VAT on those boats should now be discriminated against in this way. This intransigence by HMRC is deeply disappointing and a further obstacle for the cruising community.” He added: “The CA’s Regulatory and Technical Services (RATS) group will be requesting transparency as to the grounds on which this decision was made and the logic behind it. It will be difficult to overcome the decision, but RATS will continue to challenge it.” RYA cruising manager Stuart Carruthers said: “The government had the RYA proposal to rectify a wrong of its making since January 2022 following our successful lobbying to secure an easement of the three-year RGR condition. In light…