VAT Certificate

On January 1, 2018 new VAT regulations governing maritime supplies were incorporated into the Swedish VAT Act. The new regulations are an adaption to the rules in the EU VAT Directive. In order to continue to invoice you without charging Swedish VAT we have drafted a certificate, where you certify that your ships that call on Port of Uddevalla qualify for the VAT exemption.

The new rules have an impact on when vessels are qualified for VAT exemption. Both the following criteria must be fulfilled:

• The vessel should be used for carrying passengers for reward or used for the purpose of commercial, industrial or fishing activities.
• The vessel should predominantly be used on the high seas.

The Swedish Tax Agency has issued an official guideline dated December 21, 2017 (Vessels used on the high seas, Valu addes tax, dno: 202 482304-17 /111) where they give their view on when the vessel should be considered as predominantly used on the high .seas. The criteria is fulfilled in case more than 50 per cent of the total number of voyages for a calendar year are made on the high seas or if more than 50 per cent of the total distance for a calendar year is made on the high seas. High seas are defined as all water that is not part of any country's territorial waters.

As described above, it is a condition for exempting supplies for goods and services from Swedish VAT that the vessel is used for navigation on the high seas and carrying passengers for reward or used for the purpose of commercial, industrial or fishing activities. For supplies, there is also a condition that the supply is made to the vessel owner or the operator (the party that is using the vessel for traffic operations). A supplier of goods or services to vessel must have documentation to support that the supplies qualify for VAT exemption.

In order to continue to invoice you without charging Swedish VAT we have drafted a form for you to fill, where you certify that your vessels that call at Port of Uddevalla qualify for the VAT exemption. We therefore kindly ask you to fill in the form and send it to us. lf the conditions above are not met for the vessel, please contact us immediately.

It could be difficult, even for the party who uses the vessel in the daily operations, to foresee the future use of the vessel and consequently if it will qualify for VAT exemption. A supplier of goods and services can assume that a vessel has been predominantly used on the high seas the previous year also will qualify for the present year. In case there has been no change in how the vessel is used, you could use the information for last year when determining if the vessel qualify.

Form for certification of VAT exemption for vessels

To exclude sales of goods and services relating to ships from Swedish VAT the vessel should be used on the high seas. High seas are defined as all water that is not part of any country's territorial waters.

The vessel is predominantly used on the high sea if more than 50 % of the total number of voyages carried by the vessel during a year is on the high sea or if more than 50 % of the total distance of the vessels travels in one year goes on the high sea.

This is in accordance with the Swedish VAT Law (1994:200), EU VAT Directive 2006/112/EG and the Swedish Tax Agency's definition in official guideline dated December 21, 2017 (Vessels used on the high seas, Value adds tax, no 202 482304-17/111).

It is also possible to download the VAT Certificate as PDF and send to debitering@uddevalla-hamn.se