Topic: Service charge

This hurts my head - just get me a drink, I'll pay the VAT!

QUOTE:

Agreed you cop VAT all the time but every cruise i've been on has included a non EU port (even if that is Gibraltar) (10 cruises in all) so as to avoid the VAT, but you still get the Spanish VAT(in spanish waters ) on drinks and services from the date of the new spanish law


Pete

Agreed - so TOP TIP - do not buy wine packages etc. until you are out of territorial waters if you are visiting a non-EU port during your cruise.

QUOTE:

The attachment states 'France (including Monaco)'.

We did the same trip (Jade BCN - BCN) and paid 8% all the time.

Last summer we did a Jade B2B out of Venice - first week we visited Croatia and Turkey so no VAT and duty-free sales. Second week was Greek islands so VAT 'charged' (at 0%) and no duty-free.

Not wishing to be rude but your attachment is issued by a cruise line and is therefore their interpretation of the rules not a schedule as obtained from HMRC. I'm trying to find it at this moment.

pete

HMRC are UK - this is Spain we are talking about - I believe the rules are different. I have seen an RCI document which says basically the same thing as the NCL one.

No business in their right mind would charge an additional 8% if they did not need to (lower sales, peed off customers etc..) (besides charging VAT when it is not supposed to be charged is an offence).

Last Christmas on Arcadia we were informed of the Spanish tax the evening before we entered their territorial waters and were able to order our wine for dinner the next evening without incurring the 8% tax that is imposed by Spain.

Good old P&O again! Putting their customers first in the fight against beaurocracy.

Although the extra cost was not very much, we felt valued as passengers, in that they bothered to advise us of this means of circumventing an ubiquitous charge, imposed for no other reason than to gain extra revenue on the back of those who visit their country and contribute greatly to their income as cruisers.

QUOTE:

Last Christmas on Arcadia we were informed of the Spanish tax the evening before we entered their territorial waters and were able to order our wine for dinner the next evening without incurring the 8% tax that is imposed by Spain.

Good old P&O again! Putting their customers first in the fight against beaurocracy.

Not bureaucracy - simply trying to keep the economy afloat - if you pardon the pun!

QUOTE:

Not bureaucracy - simply trying to keep the economy afloat - if you pardon the pun!

Theirs, not ours.

Pun pardoned.

QUOTE:

HMRC are UK - this is Spain we are talking about - I believe the rules are different. I have seen an RCI document which says basically the same thing as the NCL one.

No business in their right mind would charge an additional 8% if they did not need to (lower sales, peed off customers etc..) (besides charging VAT when it is not supposed to be charged is an offence).

But even if they are UK they are duty bound to uphold and enforce all EU VAT rules , particularly with regard to cross-border trading (intra as well as inter EU trading).

IN fact they have loads of down-loadable documents dealing with these issues on their web sites. I know I've just been searching them

NCL (US company whose ships are mostly flagged in Bermuda) and sailing out of Barcelona are not really within HMRCs remit.

Notwithstanding that, the cruise lines would never get away with charging VAT when it is not required. This change in EU legislation was quite controversial when it came in and the cruise lines had to do some serious lobbying to get the non-EU port 'exemption' I believe.

The cruise lines are not breaking the law/ripping off cruisers - they do not like it any more than we do. The only pax who can reclaim any VAT charged are non EU nationals and then only for single purchases above about 90 euros.

Here is a good link which shows some of the special status zones in the EU and their 0 or low VAT ratings.

Special member state territories and the European Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The whole issue is a nightmare and as i suggested earlier some companies just pay the tax for all of the cruise and hope that nobody tries the court route to get an official ruling on the status of cruising and VAT. They probably believe that they can prove they were not trying to break any rules but on the contrary enforce them and in the mean time pocket the extra profit