End of Cruising

[Bimini Babe 0]

Exactly. Those countries charging a premium to enter will soon feel the pinch as numbers start to drop. Or perhaps not - perhaps they'll just create a situation where only the rich and famous continue to visit, and they'll enjoy lower numbers with the same level of revenue. Wouldn't that be wonderful in NZ? Then I could race up and down the harbour at Opua in the summer and only have to worry about hitting one anchored superyacht, rather than fifty million small boats.

 

Point is, it's within their rights to charge what they want. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. Aussie is off my cruising list for precisely that reason.

 

Now piracy, however, is another issue. And I think it's wholly unacceptable for countries like Somalia to continue to do SFA about it. But who's going to make them?

[Guest]

There is no country called Somalia, it only exists as lines on a map.

 

 

But BB, what happens when the countries that have excluded themselves are so numerous your plans are thwarted?Take the Med for instance, you've got VAT, the EU, Shengen passports, new taxes in Italy and Greece. But it is bloody hard to get from one end to another and avoid them all. I'm pretty sure David Lackey looked into this one and gave it all away - you there David?

[Guest]

Sounds like some people think its ok for EQIS? to charge A$330 to enter Australia.Say......why dont DOC start charging that for boats to enter NZ?

Boat calls in requiring clearance.

 

Customs dude -

1/4 hr prep

1 hour travelling (assuming arriving in the Gold Coast Marina in Aussie or even Opua in NZ, 2 common arrival points)

1 hour inspecting

1 hour home again

1/4 hr paperwork

 

The Bio Dude the same plus

1/2 hr waste dumping

 

7.5 hours all up meaning a $330 fee that's $44 per hour excluding expenses like fuel, waste burning fuel, car/s, paperwork and all that stuff. And having done clearance into Aussie a few time they have a mother load of blaa blaa blaa, NZ is far far cleaner.

 

Your local Auckland Shitty Council charges you $120 per hour to have someone with few clues to sit at a desk and just look at your building permit paperwork. A mechanic charges more to change a air filter in your car. Hell, hair dressers charge a shite load more than 44 a hr.

 

How many Govts could easily and very probably are looking at it and asking the following questions.

Is us charging $330 really that unreasonable?

Should our Mr Rangi Public earning minimum wage be expected to subsidise foreign cruisers? (on top of what some countries already do for cruisers, NZ being one giving them all tax breaks)

In the big scheme of things if we piss a handful off will it hurt us that much, if at all?

Will we get re-elected if the already hammered voting public see us sucking up to wealthy* foreign cruisers?

 

* - yes many aren't in our definition of wealthy. But a poor NZer is a millionaire equivalent in many of the worlds countries with their boat alone possibly worth 100years of local wages, so it very easy to preceive even a bare bones cruiser as wealthy. In one close by country we worked out the bottle of rum, we drank in an hour while anchored off a gorgeous village beach, was equivalent to the total one local would earn in nearly 2 weeks.

 

Look at it from the other side and the fees are quite understandable even if we still hate them.

[Guest]

Hey KM - Curious - what tax breaks do we give cruisers?

[Guest]

They don't have to pay GST.

 

Which coincidently is the same deal gazillions of NZers bitched about when it was offered to Warner Bros if they made some movie here about short ugly dudes losing their ring piece.

[darkside 61]

Sail-world are running an article that says Italy have backed down on the new charges, only local boats to be taxed.

The tax in Greece isn't new, they are just applying it to shorter visits than before. We got caught about seven years ago as we wintered the boat there and got taxed on exit. Aparently a lot of boats have left Greece so the harsher tax rules may not last long either

There is still plenty of the Med left though. The waste water rules in Turkey are tough but once you are set up for them it should be OK. Tunisia is well worth a look as well. France is surprisingly relaxed about cruiser rules.

[Guest]

Visiting cruisers,and all other visitors pay plenty of GST.They are tax payers and thats an argument why they should not pay high entry and exit taxes.

And one thing we shouldn't be proud of.If you are not on welfare but cannot earn enough to live on,the government still takes about 25% of what you do earn.

[Megwyn 2]

If you are not on welfare but cannot earn enough to live on,the government still takes about 25% of what you do earn.

 

Add in GST and petrol tax etc etc, and I think it is higher than that.

Also, if you are working, you have to get to work.

Right now, we would be better off on the dole. But that is not they way we roll. . .

[Guest]

Visiting cruisers,and all other visitors pay plenty of GST.They are tax payers and thats an argument why they should not pay high entry and exit taxes.

Yes they do pay some GST but they do get let off paying $100,000's a year, probably even more. Which I think is a good thing for the marine industry and NZ but there does have to be limits.

[Guest]

My understanding is they don't pay GST if they are leaving again, in which case whatever item it was they purchased is being exported. No problem.

[darkside 61]

Does anyone know the mechanics of not paying GST in NZ?

In Oz you had to find a retailer happy to do the exemption paperwork. Because of this it had to be a big ticket item to get a positive response from the seller.

We bought a set of house batteries and were told to keep copies for Customs at the exit port.

It was Darwin for us and they never asked...

[Grinna 2]

I believe its more a case of claiming the GST back when you leave ... .so that's keeping receipts and sorting it all. Only worthwhile for large ticket items I'm guessing.

[Guest]

There is no country called Somalia, it only exists as lines on a map.

 

 

........Take the Med for instance, you've got VAT, the EU, Shengen passports, new taxes in Italy and Greece. But it is bloody hard to get from one end to another and avoid them all. I'm pretty sure David Lackey looked into this one and gave it all away - you there David?

 

Of course I'm here.

 

We had hoped, on my wife's retirement, to take Bintang to the Med, New England, Scotland, French atlantic coast, which we had sampled, along with cruising in the pacific and SE Asia (in a time-limited way) over the years. In the end we concluded that we were too old to bother with Red Sea/Gulf of Aden piracy, with slogging around South Africa, or european bureaucracy, and the evidently increasing red tape. It was fun in our 30s and 40s and we put up with all sorts of bureaucratic sh*t from Indonesians, Fijiians, Singaporeans, Greeks, etc.

 

But to be honest, the bottom line is that we decided that we were simply too old for ocean walloping or bureaucratic bastardisation. We were, in a word, Chicken!

 

Furthermore, we came to the realisation that, while we'd cruised in several regions of the world, we had, since the 1970s, completely neglected New Zealand.

 

We now spend 6 months of the year on the NZ coast and don't regret a minute.

 

The bottom line is, therefore, don't wait until you are too old and stupid - go and do it now.

[Guest]

Last I heard there were no charges for visiting Wallis/Futuna and I think there is no charge for New Caledonia.Can anyone confirm this?

[Guest]

Not sure about New Cal but Wallis & Futuna are free and incredibly easy and friendly to clear into.

[too_tall 15]

Oh my, yes I made a mistake with who I was quoting. I was indeed meaning B Babes post. So sorry megwyn. Now, why on earth did I have your name in my mind

 

I think that Wheel's enthusiasm for the sport and this forum sometimes gets the better of him, hence the odd typo or misnaming...

 

I think its excusable!

 

If only we all shared his level of passion!

[Guest]

Does anyone know the mechanics of not paying GST in NZ?

When a cruzer arrives in NZ it gets a TIE, Temporary Import Exemption. That gives it a certain amount of time to stay here before it either has to leave or pays GST and Duties. You can apply for an extension and if you have a 1/2 decent reason it'll be granted. The time frame used to be 12 months as standard but they are fiddling with that meaning it's often shorter, 9 months seems to be common of late and I heard something about 'lining up dates' but I'm knot too sure what that's about. Customs do appear to be easy to deal with and quite realistic with timings and so on, well done that Govt Dept.

 

With that TIE you can present it at assorted places and buy goods NZ GST free. We take them here, most do but for some strange reason I can't get a grip on some don't. It makes no difference to the vendors as if they don't charge GST they don't have to pay it so why knot be nice to the cruzers.

 

The GST free TIE is supposedly only supposed to apply to bits brought for the boat i.e. new chain, sails, mast, fuel, whatever. It doesn't apply to grocery shopping, 6" stiletto heeled sea boats, or diamond encrusted G strings for the girlfriend. In theory anything gear wise the boat will leave with can be got GST free.

 

I have also seen Customs make deals with cruzers coming here then deciding to become NZers in which Customs will waive GST on the boat entirely, as long as the boat is the residence and not sold for 2 years. Again, well done that Govt Dept. I put a dude on to that who moved back from Aussie, after being there 30 years odd, with his boat and they waived the GST, which was a nice number but one he would have found hard to stump up with. If he had to pay it he probably would have had to sell the boat to do so, the boat he lives on and has for 25 years odd. Since then he has become a productive working tax paying NZer so a win-win I'd say.

 

We see a lot of TIE's here and think this is a good idea as if we didn't have a system like that some cruzers are up for seriously big bucks. As an example a million dollar boat, and we do see a lot on or above that number, would have to pay $150,000 in GST and another $200,000 odd in duty, assuming it's knot a Aussie made boat who cops no duty due to CER but is still up for GST. So expecting a cruzer, many of which do spend a fair bit here as a mid way rebuild, to front up with 350K is a hell big ask. We have seen some boats up for 6-700K and a few a lot more than that. All the numbers are listed on the TIE Cert, a copy of which we must retain with our paperwork should the IRD ask the 'What the F??' question of our GST accounting. We are theoretically also supposed to have a photocopy of the Skippers passport as well but as most are so ugly we don't do that.

 

So a cruzer visiting NZ can spend a lot of money without paying GST and it all happens as they go so no need to hold receipts and buggerise around on departure. It is a clean easy to work system for everyone..... which is bloody surprising due to it's IRD connection

 

In Aussie you have to import the boat if it's there for any longish time frame, knot sure how long that is. If a Aussie boat sails offshore it must be exported then imported again on it's return. A freacking paperwork clusterfuck at it's finest. As I understand it a cruzer can keep receipts and claim GST back on departure but I also understand that's knot super simple and fraught with bureaucracy, a massive growth sector in Aussie. Or that's what the rules were a year or 3 back when I swapped a couple of boats around the Tazzie.

 

And as always - the above is from my understanding of it all so feel free to use it in Court if you like but don't be surprised if you are told to piss off.

[Guest]

The big cat I took back to Brisbane a year or so back had been sold in Aus to an Aussie from US?. He found it cheaper to have it delivered to NZ, title transfer here, then delivered back to Brissie.

[darkside 61]

nonam I have cleared into New Cal three times and don't recall a charge but do recall that the first night in the Marina is free.

In stead of all the doom and gloom about cruising getting harder how about some of the good stories?

Our best reception was Abu Tig in Egypt where as long as you stayed a month it was free to stay in the Marina.

The sand storms where a bit of a pain though

[Guest]

Absolutely.I thought this thread was for the good and the bad.We want to know the best places to go as well as learning which ones to avoid.

Last year it cost two of us NZ$200 to visit Penrhyn/Tongareva for three days.The Cook Islands government charges everyone NZ$55 per head departure tax.I think the customs guy socked us $50 overtime even though it was week day mid morning.

Also the customs guy is an alcoholic and wants cruisers to give him booze.

The senior cop is a good guy but he turns a blind eye to the above.