The procedure for making and deciding claims to relief provided
by Section 42 TMA 1970 does not apply to the seafarers' deduction.
Section 378(1) simply states that "a deduction is allowed...".
Self assessment taxpayers may use Helpsheet IR205 to
calculate the eligible period and enter the amount of the deduction
in box 11 on page Ai2 in the Additional Information pages
associated with the employment pages.
For tax returns for the year ended 5 April 2007 onwards,
employees who enter an amount for Seafarers’ Earnings
Deduction (“SED”) box 11 on page Ai2 i are required to
enter the names of the ships on which they performed employment
duties as additional information in Box 17 on page Ai4 of the
Additional Information pages
Consequently it will no longer be necessary to open a formal
enquiry simply to establish the name of the vessel on which an
employee performed duties in order to check whether earnings on
that vessel qualify for SED. Fewer routine enquiries of this type
from HMRC should help to reduce the costs of tax compliance for
seafarers and their agents.
