The shipping industry has bitterly disappointed non-domiciled residents, including many shipowners, who lost their tax-free status in the 2008 Budget.

Leading representative organisations – including the Baltic Exchange, Chamber of Shipping, Maritime London, and the Joint Hull Committee – insist non-doms already pay substantial amounts of tax on the income they generate in the UK and the capital they remit to the country, according to Lloyd’s List.

‘Undermining the UK’s £1.5bn, world-beating maritime services sector will do nothing to help the UK’s economy or the chancellor’s fiscal position,’ Jeremy Penn, Baltic Exchange chief executive, said.

‘We are very disappointed that the government has chosen to ignore advice from so many sources and to push these changes through. There is no doubt that rather than raising funds for the exchequer, the effect of this move will be to cause the large-scale departure of shipping businesses and massive fallout in maritime services, with obvious consequences for government revenues.’

Further reading:

Muted response to government’s non-dom concessions

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