Men!!!

When I first started doing this blog Paul wanted to know why I was doing it, my answer being because I wanted to, any way as time has gone on he has passed comment every time I have written it. Not always good I might add. After I got off of the PC yesterday he said "did you mention my phone call" well of course I hadn't so below is the story of the phone call dictated by Paul with me being the typist. (under protest)

Paul's thought for the day thats if anyone is interested.

You may find this pretty boring I'm sure most of you have already given it some thought and yes I am talking about the duty paid on red diesel. First of all it seems to me on my enquiries that it is only us in the pleasure boating fraternity who have to pay this extra duty on fuel. It appears that ie farmers, dumper trucks and road use mobile cranes do not pay this duty, also they dont pay as much per litre as we do admittedly some of this could be a concesion. However some of you may be aware of the list that is flying about of certain red diesel outlets that will only sell it to you (this is only tow path telegraph) in a 60/40 split I understand one outlet was reported to HMRC by a customer who wasnt allowed to self declare and the rerailer has had his knuckles rapped for carrying out this practise. Now, it seems to me that the whole shooting match could be open to abuse and I repeat could be, by the retail outlet regarding the yearly payment of the duty to HMRC. Lynne and I have kept a log of all diesel used over the last 3 months and I have calculated the diesel usage of the engine and domestic running hours.
Although we are in the winter months and cruising hours are not as great whereas domestic hours are increased. It transpires according to our log that the average split is 33% steaming and 67% domestic these figures will obviously alter during the summer when we are spending more hours cruising and less hours on domestic central heating. This brings me on to the reasoning of the retail outlets that will only sell you at a split of 60/40 on this information I made a phone call to HMRC to enquire exactly what the boaters rights are as we had been informed that it was down to the individual boater to self declare to the retailer. The answer I got from HMRC is that the retailer can sell his diesel at what ever split they want although this is not mandatory from HMRC and it was stated that like VAT it is all done on trust so whereas a retailer will pay his accountant (I have to be very careful what I say here) to submit his VAT returns each year this will also apply to the duty collected on red diesel. I tried to put it to HMRC that if we had to buy diesel from a retail outlet stipulating only 60/40 that we were falsifying our self declaration more so if we were declaring 80/20 plus if we wanted to declare 20/80 who gets the extra revenue. It seems to me that this could have been done a much fairer way for all concerned although on reading articles this had been dismissed that duty be put on red diesel across the board as an example our last purchase of diesel was 59p ltr + duty 40.66 ltr + 2p VAT = £1.0166 + 59p =£1.6066 divide by 2 = 80.33p per ltr. This of course is the simplistic way to work out the average cost of your diesel which however you pay it you are still paying it obviously this will depend on the split that you declare on this occasion we did an 20/80 split obviously the difference on the split will change the average and of course if fuel prices rise the cross the board price will rise. I am not saying that I agree with this formulation but it would have been simpler. I know most of you would not agree with this because of the cost, but it would have made the paperwork redundant for the boater and the retailer. Although you think you are only paying 59p for domestic diesel on a floating scale you are not. It has also come to our attention that some occasions we have been charged VAT on both the steaming and domestic split but at other times charged VAT just on the steaming split and/or the total amount and/ or the duty. I tried explaining this to the lady at HMRC and basically she couldnt understand what I was trying to tell her and if I had any complaints to put in writing and they will look into it at their earliest convenience. I thought what a load of bollocks and explained to her that it is HMRC who are supposed to be policing this but she was adamant that I had to put it in writing. But I feel somewhere along the line someone will get their fingers burnt. I am not having a go at the retail outlets as I feel sure their are as much in the dark as we are but it is just something I had to get off my chest and give you lot something to talk about. My only suggestion is that you keep all documentation relating to fuel purchases and keep a log of all engine running hours so that if you are boarded by HMRC in a peaked cap you can prove your declarations. I would look forward to your comments. Here endeth my ramblings. No bad language in return please.

Your back with me now and I am going to take the dogs out to lower my blood pressure after typing all that. Some paragraphs I have refused to type as I couldnt spell the expleatives and we would probably end up being sued.

Oh yes Paul did manage to change the engine oil and filters today while I had to struggle back from Sainsburys with weeks shopping in a rucksack and two bags. Good job I managed to squeeze in a bottle of wine.