Carrying fuel across a border

Fuel already legally in our tanks is governed by the 1990 Istanbul Convention, to which the UK is a contracting party. It lets a means of transport, along with the fuel in its normal tanks, be temporarily imported into a signatory state without import duties and taxes, and without import prohibitions or restrictions being applied.

Four things need to be true for us to rely on it.

• The fuel is in the boat’s normal tanks.
• The boat is registered in the UK or another non-EU state.
• The registered owner is established or resident in the UK or another non-EU state.
• The boat is imported and used by people resident in the UK or another non-EU state.

The EU27 count as a single territory, so a hop from France to Spain isn’t a fresh temporary import.

One part of this has some give in it. The Convention sets out what signatory states are supposed to implement. Every EU27 member should recognise and apply it, and there’s no guarantee that all of them will, or that they’ll do it consistently. It also gives us as individuals no right of action if a state declines, because only another signatory state has that capacity. If we’re challenged, how far the Convention protects us comes down to the national law of the country we’re standing in.

Paperwork

Everything below answers one question from an official: where did this fuel come from and what was paid on it.

• Receipts for every Great Britain purchase, with “duty paid” marked on them. Ask the retailer to write it on at the till. A receipt showing litres and a price says nothing about duty.
• A log of refuelling dates and engine hours. If the receipt says 200 litres on 14 April and the engine hours support the passages since, the numbers back each other up.
• Passage records. Dates and ports, which most of us are keeping in the log anyway.
• Receipts for anything bought abroad, kept to the same standard.
• No marked diesel anywhere except the main fuel storage tanks. A jerry can of red lashed on the coachroof is fuel outside the normal tanks, which puts it outside what the Istanbul Convention covers.

Keep the lot together, in one wallet, somewhere we can reach without emptying a locker.

Questions we get asked

Can we take red diesel to France? Carrying it in the boat’s normal tanks is generally permitted under the Istanbul Convention, provided the boat, its owner, and its users are all non-EU. Buying it there for propulsion is not permitted, at sea or inland.

Is red diesel illegal in a propulsion tank in Great Britain? No. It’s legal. We pay the full rate of duty on the propulsion share, which is a question of price, not permission.

We’ve only got one tank. Can we still get the cheaper rate? In Great Britain, yes with red diesel, on whatever share we declare as domestic use. In Northern Ireland, yes with white diesel, through the private pleasure craft relief at 40%. In the EU, no, and we buy fully duty-paid fuel.

Is the 60/40 split a legal requirement? No. There is no fixed legal split, and we declare our actual expected percentages.

What if an official challenges us anyway? Show the receipts and logs, stay polite, and keep copies of any paperwork issued. The RYA collects first-hand reports of red diesel difficulties abroad, so send them the detail afterwards.

Before the next crossing

Dig out the receipts for whatever is currently in the tank and check whether any of them say “duty paid”, then start the engine-hour and refuelling log now rather than reconstructing it in a marina office in August.

Fuel duty and cross-border rules do get revised, so check the current position with HMRC and the RYA before a crossing rather than trusting an article, including this one.

We’ve crossed to Cherbourg, got the lines on, and an officer from the Douane comes down the pontoon and asks to dip our tank. The sample comes up bright red.

Awkward, because we filled up at a fuel barge in the Solent in April and we paid full duty on every litre of it. We just have no way of showing that from the colour of the sample.

This is general guidance for a UK resident taking a UK-registered private pleasure craft abroad for a short visit, and it’s not legal advice. Basing the boat abroad, owning it through a company, or chartering it out all take the rules somewhere different.

Why the fuel is dyed at all

Marked diesel is dyed so that an inspector can take a sample and see, without a laboratory, that the fuel came out of the rebated supply chain.

So red means rebated, rebated means a lower rate of duty (for specific uses like heating and generating electricity), and red diesel in a propulsion tank suggests somebody hasn’t paid what they owe.

That chain works almost everywhere, except in Great Britain where there are loopholes and alternative arrangements.

Almost all the confusion here comes from running two separate questions together.

1. What can we buy, and where?
2. What can we carry across a border?

They have different answers, and different rules sitting behind them. Buying is a straight yes or no in every country. Carrying is a bit more flexible.

Buying in Great Britain

Diesel used to propel a private pleasure craft in England, Scotland, and Wales is not eligible for a reduced rate of duty. However, red is still sold at the waterside, and putting it in the propulsion tank is perfectly legal. We just have to declare if it’s for propulsion and pay the applicable taxes.

That is the sticking point, we can use red diesel for propulsion in Great Britain so long as we pay the correct rate of duty for that use. That is why a UK boat can end up in Cherbourg with a red sample and a clean conscience.

When we buy red diesel we declare to the supplier what proportion we expect to use for propulsion and what proportion for domestic use. There’s no fixed legal split. Industry and HMRC analysis suggests 60/40 propulsion to domestic reflects typical usage, which is where the number on the form comes from, but it’s a guide, not a rule. If our usage differs, or the boat has no domestic use at all, we declare our actual percentages. A declaration is needed even when 100% of the fuel is going into the engine.

Using the same supplier regularly, we can make one annual declaration instead of signing at every purchase, as long as the percentage is accurate. Renew it at least yearly, and make a fresh one whenever the percentage changes. Winter is the obvious trigger, because a boat on a mooring with the heater running and the engine barely turning has a very different split from the same boat in August.

Buying in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland still follows certain EU excise rules under the Northern Ireland Protocol, and those rules don’t allow rebated fuel to propel a pleasure craft at all.

So it works like Great Britain, with two differences. The fuel is white, and the split is fixed.

Red must not go into the tank that feeds the propulsion engine. Not “pay more for it”. It must not go in. With two tanks, that means red for the domestic tank and white for the propulsion tank. With one tank, it’s white all round.

White fuel doesn’t mean full duty on all of it though. A single-tank boat claims the private pleasure craft relief, which gives the lower rate of duty on 40% of the quantity, reflecting the share typically used for something other than propulsion. Ask for it by name, and sign a declaration at every purchase.

Great Britain gives us red fuel at full duty. Northern Ireland gives us white fuel at a partly reduced rate. Same split between colour and duty, running opposite ways.

A Northern Ireland boat visiting Great Britain can buy red under Great Britain rules and bring it home, on the strength of receipts, engine-hour logs, and passage records.

Buying in the EU

Buy white. That’s it.

Marked diesel is on sale across the EU, for fishing boats, commercial ships, farms, and heating. It isn’t for us. Buying marked fuel to propel a private pleasure craft is generally not permitted in EU states, and France states it flatly: red is not authorised for propelling a private pleasure craft, at sea or on inland waters.

The trap is that the pump is right there, and someone alongside is filling from it perfectly legally. Availability isn’t permission, and the person who answers for what’s in our tank is us.

Don’t go by colour either. Marking varies between countries, so local rebated fuel may not look like UK red. Ask whether it’s rebated or fully duty-paid, and take the duty-paid one.

Carrying fuel across a border

Fuel already legally in our tanks is governed by the 1990 Istanbul Convention, to which the UK is a contracting party. It lets a means of transport, along with the fuel in its normal tanks, be temporarily imported into a signatory state without import duties and taxes, and without import prohibitions or restrictions being applied.

Four things need to be true for us to rely on it.

• The fuel is in the boat’s normal tanks.
• The boat is registered in the UK or another non-EU state.
• The registered owner is established or resident in the UK or another non-EU state.
• The boat is imported and used by people resident in the UK or another non-EU state.

The EU27 count as a single territory, so a hop from France to Spain isn’t a fresh temporary import.

One part of this has some give in it. The Convention sets out what signatory states are supposed to implement. Every EU27 member should recognise and apply it, and there’s no guarantee that all of them will, or that they’ll do it consistently. It also gives us as individuals no right of action if a state declines, because only another signatory state has that capacity. If we’re challenged, how far the Convention protects us comes down to the national law of the country we’re standing in.

Paperwork

Everything below answers one question from an official: where did this fuel come from and what was paid on it.

• Receipts for every Great Britain purchase, with “duty paid” marked on them. Ask the retailer to write it on at the till. A receipt showing litres and a price says nothing about duty.
• A log of refuelling dates and engine hours. If the receipt says 200 litres on 14 April and the engine hours support the passages since, the numbers back each other up.
• Passage records. Dates and ports, which most of us are keeping in the log anyway.
• Receipts for anything bought abroad, kept to the same standard.
• No marked diesel anywhere except the main fuel storage tanks. A jerry can of red lashed on the coachroof is fuel outside the normal tanks, which puts it outside what the Istanbul Convention covers.

Keep the lot together, in one wallet, somewhere we can reach without emptying a locker.

Questions we get asked

Can we take red diesel to France? Carrying it in the boat’s normal tanks is generally permitted under the Istanbul Convention, provided the boat, its owner, and its users are all non-EU. Buying it there for propulsion is not permitted, at sea or inland.

Is red diesel illegal in a propulsion tank in Great Britain? No. It’s legal. We pay the full rate of duty on the propulsion share, which is a question of price, not permission.

We’ve only got one tank. Can we still get the cheaper rate? In Great Britain, yes with red diesel, on whatever share we declare as domestic use. In Northern Ireland, yes with white diesel, through the private pleasure craft relief at 40%. In the EU, no, and we buy fully duty-paid fuel.

Is the 60/40 split a legal requirement? No. There is no fixed legal split, and we declare our actual expected percentages.

What if an official challenges us anyway? Show the receipts and logs, stay polite, and keep copies of any paperwork issued. The RYA collects first-hand reports of red diesel difficulties abroad, so send them the detail afterwards.

Before the next crossing

Dig out the receipts for whatever is currently in the tank and check whether any of them say “duty paid”, then start the engine-hour and refuelling log now rather than reconstructing it in a marina office in August.

Fuel duty and cross-border rules do get revised, so check the current position with HMRC and the RYA before a crossing rather than trusting an article, including this one.