What makes seafarers & mariners different from an ordinary filing?
Ships have their own treaty article, and it usually allocates crew income by reference to the enterprise operating the ship rather than the waters sailed. Days at sea are also treated differently from days in a country for most residency tests. An ordinary preparer applies the general rule and stops there, which is how the relief in the specific provision goes unclaimed.
Can you work with my existing accountant?
That is how most of these engagements run. They keep the domestic file, we take the cross-border piece, and the boundary is agreed in writing so nothing is done twice or missed.
How much does a seafarer tax return cost?
There is no single figure, because a crew file can be one country and one contract, or it can be a run of years, two authorities and a disclosure. What is fixed is the order. You send the documents you hold, we read them, and a written fee for the whole engagement follows before anything is prepared. The fee covers the scope set out in that letter, so the price does not move because the work turned out to take longer than expected. If something genuinely outside the scope appears, such as an unfiled year nobody had mentioned, it is quoted separately before it is started.
Why do you need my discharge book before quoting?
Because the sea-time record is what decides how much work the file is. The sign-on and sign-off dates tell us how many periods have to be allocated, whether leave and training rotations are buried in one payroll figure, and whether the year involves a single operator or several. A file with one contract and clean dates is a different engagement from one with three vessels and a manning agent in between. Reading that record first is what lets us put a fixed price in writing instead of an hourly estimate that grows once the file is open.
Do I pay twice if I have to file in two countries?
The fee is quoted for the engagement, not per authority, and the returns are prepared together because each depends on the other. The position taken under the shipping article in one country decides what is claimed in the second. Preparing them separately, through two firms who never see each other's working papers, is how crew end up paying twice in fees and once more in tax. The written quote names the filings that are included, so there is no argument afterwards about whether the second country sat inside the price you agreed.
What if I have years I never filed, is that extra?
Usually yes, and it is priced before it starts rather than discovered halfway through. Tell us how many years you believe are outstanding and send whatever you hold for them, even if it is patchy. We scope the back years as their own piece of work and quote them in writing alongside the current year, so you can take the current year on its own and deal with the history later if you would rather. What we will not do is open a file, find the history, and then reprice an engagement you have already agreed.
Is the fee agreed before any work starts?
Yes, and the sequence is the point. You send what you have, we read it, a written fixed fee for a named scope goes back to you, and only then does preparation begin. For a seafarer that matters more than it does for most clients, because the scope cannot honestly be judged from a description over the phone. The payroll summary, the contract and the sea-time record routinely disagree with one another, and it is reading all three that tells us what the file actually is. The figure in that letter is the figure.
What documents should I send to get a price?
The contract of employment naming the operator, your pay records for the years in question, any certificate of tax deducted, and the sea-time record, which usually means the discharge book or the sign-on and sign-off list. If part of that is missing, send what you have. Incomplete papers still let us scope the file and say what else will be needed. Do not spend months chasing documents before making contact, because part of what the quote tells you is which of the missing items actually matter to your position and which do not.
How many days can I spend in a country before I become tax resident?
It depends on the country, and a day count is only ever the start. Many use a threshold in a tax year, some also look at averages across several years, and some have no day test at all and decide on where your home and life are. Two countries can both conclude you are resident, which is what the treaty tie-breaker exists to settle. Counting days without checking the tie-breaker is how people end up filing as resident nowhere. See the residency tie-breaker.
What happens if the two countries disagree about which of them can tax me?
The treaty has a procedure for exactly that. You apply to the competent authority in your residence country, which takes the case up with its counterpart, and the two negotiate a position that removes the double taxation. Some treaties add binding arbitration if they cannot agree. It is slow and it runs on documents, so the practical work is preserving the record and filing protective claims while the clock runs. See our treaty work.
