2021 - Happy New Year!
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Wed 6 Jan 2021 10:11
Our current pandemic woes were expected to be compounded by Brexit and our exit from the European single market. The government triumphantly came up with the biggest and most comprehensive trade agreement ever negotiated, omitting in its euphoria to make it clear that it is also the only trade agreement with the specific purpose of putting barriers to trade in place where none before existed. In practice the consequences of Brexit were never likely to be most significant in the short term. It was always going to be pragmatic for all concerned to avoid immediate and damaging consequences. It is the longer term consequences of lack of participation in European institutions, the ongoing impact of insidious regulation and bureaucracy, the movement of investment away from the UK, the barriers to financial and professional services and the determination of the EU not to allow the UK to become the backdoor into Europe for the likes of the US that will do the real damage. One consequence of Brexit seised upon by the yachting community has resulted from the withdrawal of the UK from the EU customs union. This means that a hitherto little appreciated and largely ignored regulation concerning imports and exports has been brought into focus. Goods (yachts in this case) purchased within the EU and then taken out of the EU customs area for a period greater than three years have technically been exported and are liable for the payment of customs duties (i.e. VAT) if re-imported after three years. The issue has arisen because many yachts owned by British yachties are kept within the EU. Now that the UK has been out of the customs union for three years these yachts will be liable for the payment of VAT if brought back into the UK. Conversely if a yacht was bought originally in the UK but has now been kept for more than three years within the EU, VAT may become liable within the EU country in which it is now kept. Organisations such as the RYA have made a huge song and dance about this, raising the profile of an issue that might have better been addressed on a low key and trial and error basis. Now, in an era when hard and imaginative tax raising will be required to address the colossal debt being incurred supporting the economy under the pandemic (that is unlikely to be borne by the corporations and high net worth individuals that have prospered so much over the last year) I am not going plead poverty for yacht owners. However, those who have sold their house in order to fund a floating home or, like Annie and me, bought a boat within the UK, paid our VAT and set off on our adventure of a lifetime to sail around the world will be mighty aggrieved if Customs and Excise do not, as they have been entitled to do up until now, grant a dispensation on return for those who paid UK VAT before they sailed out of UK waters. In the meantime life is too short to fret about future VAT and we will give a sigh of relief that we have delayed our return to Thailand until September. This will give us time (hopefully) to have our covid immunisations whilst still in the UK and to prepare Vega and sail Thai waters before an Indian Ocean crossing in 2022. Vega is shining as a result of a recent clean and polish and swathed in protective netting to protect her from the worst of the sun. We can ship out the original 150% genoa that we thought would be too large to handle comfortably on a circumnavigation but in fact would be an ideal downwind sail. We can source a larger water maker and get this fitted on our return and, most importantly, renew the standing rigging that this year will be 10 years old. We will also, again hopefully, have quality time with friends and relatives that was the original intention of spending most of 2020 in the UK! |