Refit in New Zealand vs Australia

[old pirate]

As mention above, the time of year is important. The Gold Coast City precinct, including Boat Works and allied trades is about 35ha of concrete slab. The heat in summer (from December on) is great. If not used to it working on boats and paint drying times are challenging ! Also the area starts to close down from mid December for year end festivities. If not organised well in advance services are hard to obtain, maybe impossible. Otherwise in the year it’s a great facility.

[Sabado]

Originally Posted by old pirate

As mention above, the time of year is important. The Gold Coast City precinct, including Boat Works and allied trades is about 35ha of concrete slab. The heat in summer (from December on) is great. If not used to it working on boats and paint drying times are challenging ! Also the area starts to close down from mid December for year end festivities. If not organised well in advance services are hard to obtain, maybe impossible. Otherwise in the year it’s a great facility.

That's good to know. We may need to wait until after winter then.

[Kiwi Dave]

Hi
I live in Whangarei - there are 4 yards who can cater for catamarans
- Norsand Boat Yard - Haul out trailer. I usually haul out there, but do most of the work myself, however they can do most thing, or there are a lot of marine trades nearby.
- Harbourside Boat Works - Haul out trailer. Where our previously wrecked 45 foot catamaran ended up. Being repaired for her new owner. Similar to Norsand.
- Port Whangarei Marine Centre - 2 Travel lifts
- Marsden Cove Marina - Very sophisticated haul out trailer. Currently have the new to us 2018 Leopard 45 hauled out there for survey, they are a bit further out of town, but well set up.

From my videos-
Norsand Boat Yard
https://youtu.be/sJqX3swD26Q?si=7_sqQKJ4PwhZbV4u

Harbourside Boat Works - with view of Port Whangarei Marine Centre
https://youtu.be/IbYCzLFXmn4?si=1ynbiAkrWE9vGMOx

Marsden Cove Marina
https://youtu.be/aZ-bQr7R7Rg?si=NghgxLObneBRBnkn

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Sabado

That's good to know. We may need to wait until after winter then.

Absolutely not necessary to wait due to weather (even if you don’t have boat AC (we don’t)), TBW has a great liveaboard area with fully AC’d lounge, kitchen, laundry, toilets and showers, an a large shaded outdoor lounge area.

For trade services, yes, the Christmas shutdown is a thing.Butnit doesn’t stop you doing your work and some business do keep low-staff operations going throughout the period.

But that period is a good time to visit Tassie instead.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Cruising

A Cruising Permit will be issued for visiting vessels that do not wish to undertake charter work. This permit will be for an initial period of up to 12 months. Extensions can be applied for and are generally granted. GST tax is payable on all purchases (eg. fuel and other consumables) if under a cruising permit. Superyacht Base Australia can assist with these requirements.

Refit, Repairs and Maintenance

The owners or masters of yachts cruising Australian waters on cruising permits will be able to obtain Goods and Services Tax (GST)-free repairs or refits by presenting their cruising permits to their repairers/refitters. The Australian Taxation Office will not require presentation of documents showing prior arrangement of repairs or refits.

GST-free repairs/refits include any repairs or refits to the yachts which are done during the course of their visits to Australia. Examples of these include:

repairs necessitated by accidents in Australia; and
routine maintenance
To be GST free the supply of goods must be provided by the supplier of the refit/repairs to the vessel.

The repairer/refitter can make a GST-free supply of the repair/refit by retaining a copy of the cruising permit. In addition to the cruising permit, the repairer/refitter will retain the financial records ordinarily required for taxation and accounting purposes.

That all sounds good, but in practice we found zero, that is not a single one, service providers or retailers that we dealt with in Australia who exempted GST as the law requires that they do. They just refuse. It’s “too hard”, or “you can claim it yourself”, or “our system isn’t set up for that”.

Avoid that hassle and get your boat done in New Zealand.

[Boatguy30]

I would guess that the "super" yacht yards and vendors will do the GST exemption but I know I'm definitely paying 10% every month on my yard storage. In general, most DIY supplies are slightly less in Australia than NZ.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

New Zealand is noted for more satisfied customers and fewer horror stories, but some of the better shipwrights in Australia were raised in NZ.

All the good ones went to Oz. Refitting in NZ is a disaster waiting to happen. You have been warned.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by fxykty

That all sounds good, but in practice we found zero, that is not a single one, service providers or retailers that we dealt with in Australia who exempted GST as the law requires that they do. They just refuse. It’s “too hard”, or “you can claim it yourself”, or “our system isn’t set up for that”.

Avoid that hassle and get your boat done in New Zealand.

It's a couple of decades ago now but I found that printing out the relevant sections of the acts and give copies to the vendors and service providers was very effective. It is actually an offence to charge GST on exempted goods or services.

[Fore and Aft]

RaymondR that's a good way to start a relationship with any tradesman. Handing them a printed copy of the relevant sections of the act and telling them it's an offence to be charged for GST on exempted goods and services. The way the marine industry is booming you're probably going to be told they don't want the job, or you will get slugged with a healthy pest tax to cover all the paperwork hassle.
Cheers

[Wotname]

I'm with F&A here. Tradies are good with trade work and some of them are reasonable enough with the sending out of invoices and collecting money owing. Most of them are not good at the complexities of tax collection and regulation. They know enough to get by and get their tax advice from their accountant. They ain't going to trust some stranger who is looking for tax break by waving a bit of paper at them, especially if the paper waver is telling them it is illegal not to give them the tax break.

It will be the highway or the pest 'tax'.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

RaymondR that's a good way to start a relationship with any tradesman. Handing them a printed copy of the relevant sections of the act and telling them it's an offence to be charged for GST on exempted goods and services. The way the marine industry is booming you're probably going to be told they don't want the job, or you will get slugged with a healthy pest tax to cover all the paperwork hassle.
Cheers

So one should not exercise ones rights in relation to tax matters because the ignorant may become discomforted?

[Fore and Aft]

RaymondR you can certainly exercise your rights regarding taxation. But like Fxkty said he found zero people who wanted to do the GST exemption thing. I am one of those ones that have zero idea about complex taxation. But I do know exactly what my accountant charges so if you insisted on your rights. I would take a stab in the dark what my accountant would charge you then add it on to my quote making sure I er well on my side of my favour. But you are already starting to be difficult so if my order book is relatively full, I would politely turn down the work.
If you think I am living in fantasy land, a boat builder last week told me how he got trapped into doing a quote for a friend of a friend. He didn't want the job but had no way to politely say your friends an ass so he just doubled his price. The friend accepted the price so now he is doing the job, despite not wanting to do the job.
Cheers

[Rucksta]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

He didn't want the job but had no way to politely say your friends an ass so he just doubled his price. The friend accepted the price so now he is doing the job, despite not wanting to do the job.
Cheers

If other boat builders tripled and quadrupled their quotes it must have looked like a bargain.

In Oz major refits can be GST exempt.
The tax office has a $ threshold and a requirement for a master contractor.

All outgoings are GST paid and the master contractor recovers the GST on the monthly BAS statement in the normal course of business.

Master contractor will place a margin on all inputs including hard standing/berthage and subcontractor supply (existing margin) then add in a Project Management service fee as a % of the overall spend.

System works for big projects with an organised, well resourced Master Contractor.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Rucksta

If other boat builders tripled and quadrupled their quotes it must have looked like a bargain.

In Oz major refits can be GST exempt.
The tax office has a $ threshold and a requirement for a master contractor.

All outgoings are GST paid and the master contractor recovers the GST on the monthly BAS statement in the normal course of business.

Master contractor will place a margin on all inputs including hard standing/berthage and subcontractor supply (existing margin) then add in a Project Management service fee as a % of the overall spend.

System works for big projects with an organised, well resourced Master Contractor.

So, to make it work in Oz, Sabado would want to see which Master Contractors work with which haulout facilities. I believe the big yard in Cairns would also interface with such contractors, and am feeling fairly sure Boat Works could help. They have a very helpful frame of mind, but one does need to ride herd on the sub-contractors, imo.

Ann

[Sabado]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

So, to make it work in Oz, Sabado would want to see which Master Contractors work with which haulout facilities. I believe the big yard in Cairns would also interface with such contractors, and am feeling fairly sure Boat Works could help. They have a very helpful frame of mind, but one does need to ride herd on the sub-contractors, imo.

Ann

We have reached out the TBW as well as Multi Marine Australia with a list of work we would like to complete. I'm looking into a few of the NZ suggestions as well.


We're also waiting to hear back from our insurance company. They seem a little skittish about cyclone season.