HMRC issues tax investigation on seafarers going back to recover the tax.

And they can go back to recover the tax paid to you for 6 years.

So what’s changed?

Nothing in law

As yet there have been no court cases covering this and the legislation states that you can claim Seafarers Earnings Deduction for duties performed wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom.

This means that for the purpose of assessing whether a trip is performed wholly or partly outside of the UK the question asked is: does the journey either start or end outside of the UK?

Examples of journeys that do not meet this requirement include a fishing trip that starts and ends at a UK port, an oil field supply trip to or from a platform in UK sector of the North Sea, or a trip between platforms