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Guidance

How to pay Tonnage Tax if you're a shipping company

How to pay Tonnage Tax if you manage your ships from the UK and they weigh 100 tons or more.

Updates to this page

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published:
13 December 2011
Last updated:
12 December 2024
Show all updates

  1. Information about ships not registered in the UK, Gibraltar, European Union or European Economic Area has been removed.

  2. The email contact address for help or more information has been updated.

  3. The postal address for the HMRC tonnage tax technical adviser has been updated.

  4. This guidance has been updated to include information about the registration of vessels in the UK and Gibraltar.

  5. Contact details for the HMRC tonnage tax technical adviser have been updated.

  6. The year 2019 has been added to the list of excepted years.

  7. The 'Overview', 'Elect to use tonnage tax' and 'Excepted years' sections have been updated following legislative changes.

  8. Under heading Excepted years, the no years excepted period is now 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2018.

  9. First published.

Overview

Tonnage Tax is a form of Corporation Tax, for working out the tax you owe on your profits.

You can choose to pay Tonnage Tax on a fixed notional profit, instead of your actual profits from your shipping activities. This is based on the net tonnage of your ships.

Qualifying conditions

You may be able to choose to pay Tonnage Tax if:

Elect to use Tonnage Tax

You can elect to use Tonnage Tax but you must sign up for a minimum of 8 years.

You can make a renewal election on a rolling basis to extend the original election. You’ll not be able to renew your election if you do not renew it within the 8 year period.

Get help or more information

Read the Tonnage Tax manual for more information.

You can contact the HMRC Tonnage Tax technical adviser by:

Large Business
S1755
Newcastle
NE98 1ZZ

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