WHAT NAUTILUS WANTS TO SEE

It's time for the government to ensure that the Seafarers' Earnings Deduction is allowed to meet its aim of encouraging the employment and training of British maritime professionals, says Nautilus.

The Treasury and the tax authorities have consistently failed to appreciate the reasons why the measures were introduced in the first place.

Even worse, they have made repeated attempts to disqualify increasingly larger numbers of seafarers from eligibility to the concessions - flying in the face of the Appeal Court, the independent Alexander Inquiry and the House of Commons transport committee.

The latest debacle shows once again that it is time for the confusion and anomalies created by the current system to be eliminated, and for ministers to ensure that SED complies with the purposes for which it was created - safeguarding the supply of British seafarers.

The Alexander Report on the tonnage tax had, back in 1999, called for urgent action to end the anomalies that prevent all seafarers from benefiting from the concessions.

And in the same year, the all-party Parliamentary transport committee had recommended that the government act 'as a matter of urgency' to end what it described as the 'absurd' situation surrounding eligibility to SED.

It is now nine years since these reports called for urgent action, and it is therefore high time that the Treasury introduced a coherent policy that supports the government's wider policy objectives of promoting the training and employment of British seafarers in all sectors of the industry.