Published on: 06 January 2022
HM Revenue & Customs has published three new documents, the first being guidance on the reporting of pleasure craft coming into Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The second two documents are guidance for clearance outwards of pleasure craft from Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and sailing your pleasure craft to and from the UK.
HMRC has released these documents to inform people of the requirements that they will need to meet, as the requirements have changed as of 1 January 2022.
For craft that are arriving in the UK, the person responsible or acting on his behalf, shall make a report of arrival by appropriate electronic means or in writing by completing the declaration section in Part 2 of Form C1331 entitled “Arriving in Great Britain or Northern Ireland”. The document also sets out the requirements in respect of goods on board a pleasure craft and also which journeys the report is required for, for GB and NI. These directions came into force on 1 January 2022.
Pleasure craft which are leaving Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland must produce a document on clearance outwards, which comes from Part 1 of Form C1331 entitled “Leaving the United Kingdom (UK) Pleasure craft on non-UK voyages”. This must be sent by the person applying or the person acting on their behalf and must send Part 1 of Form C1331 by appropriate electronic means or by completing and posting Part 1 of the manual Form C1331 that contains particulars of the matters specified in it by post to the address stated on the form. The document highlights the journeys that need to be reported for clearance outwards. This came into effect as of 1 January 2022.
The final notice (Notice 8) is intended for the use of owners of pleasure craft who sail their craft to or from the UK and specifies the customs arrival and departure requirements. The notice covers areas like; which journeys you must report sailing a pleasure craft within UK waters, temporarily importing a vessel, leaving the UK, contacting the National Yachtline, Completing a C1331 form and finally help with VAT, excise and customs matters. This reporting procedure came into effect from 1 January 2022.
British Marine suggest that you take the time to look over the documents that have been released and familiarise yourselves on the requirements that you need to meet when leaving, arriving and sailing to and from the UK. You can access the report of pleasure craft into Great Britain and Northern Ireland here.
To look at the secondary legislation for pleasure craft departing from Great Britain and Northern Ireland, this can be found here and to access the notice for sailing your pleasure craft to and from the UK, can be found here.