Seafarers Earnings Deduction

If you are a UK or EU tax resident employed as a seafarer then HMRC (Her Majesties Revenue and Custom) allow you to claim back any UK income tax paid in relation to your employment on a ship as a Seafarer, provided certain qualifying criteria is achieved. This tax rule is known as ‘Seafarers Earnings Deduction’ and every year that you claim it back is known as a ‘Qualifying Tax Year’. The term Seafarer is applied to anyone who works aboard a vessel some examples include Merchant Navy Officers and Crew, entertainment staff, hospitality staff, travel couriers and musicians.

As seafarers, we are often presented with many myths and misinformation when it comes to claiming our income tax back. You may have heard terminology such as ‘Tax Qualifying Days’, ‘Anniversary Dates’ and the dreaded ‘Half Day Rule’ being used however their meaning is frequently misunderstood.  

On the back of this tax rule several ‘specialised’ ‘Seafarers Tax’ companies formed offering to complete the HMRC Self Assessed Tax Return on your behalf. The average Seafarers Tax company charges several hundred pounds for this privilege. As you will become a self assessed taxpayer you are then required to pay this fee every single year regardless of whether you achieved a Qualifying Tax Year as you are required to submit an annual self assessment. Over the course of a career these annual accountancy fees can amount to several thousand pounds.

The secret the accountancy companies don’t want you to know is that once you understand the basic terms completing your HMRC self-assessed tax return is a simple and free process.  This completely free website has been set up as a guide to support seafarers and help you avoid unnecessary accountancy fees. This will result in your saving several hundreds of pounds worth of your hard-earned money every single year. Every effort has been made to ensure all the information contained on this website is accurate and up to date however you are reminded that you remain responsible for the accurate completion of your own tax return in compliance with the current tax legislation. 

I hope you find the information contained on this site useful and should you have any questions or suggestions do not hesitate to send a message via the ‘Contact Us’ page. Finally I would be very grateful of any donation no matter how small, all donations will be used towards the costs of running the servers and maintaining the site. If you would like to donate you can do so via the PayPal donate button below.