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10.5.
By modification of our original management and control proposals and thus allowing shipowners to
continue to attribute their charters to offshore
permanent establishments they are neither better nor
worse off than at present.
Options
10.6.
It is, nevertheless, worth exploring the
options, of which there appear to be two.
10.7.
First, to retain the present taxation system
thus leaving shipowners in the same position as at
present, save that any additional vessels which might
come onto the new register and not be chartered offshore
would enter the tax net for the first time. Certainly
there is less scope for offshore charters at the present time because of the depressed state of the shipping
industry; but this does not suggest that there is any
growth potential for on-shore charters rather that
there is an over supply of ships.
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10.8.
Second, the tax on shipping income could be
removed and a levy or charges on the ships introduced
instead, possibly in the form of an annual tonnage fee
as proposed by the HKSOA. The disadvantage of this
option is that it goes against a basic principle of our