§ 4.21 Exemptions from tonnage taxes. ( a ) Tonnage taxes and light money shall be suspended in whole or in part whenever the President by proclamation shall so direct.
( b ) The following vessels, or vessels arriving in the circumstances as defined below, shall be exempt from tonnage tax and light money: ( 1 ) It comes into port for bunkers (including water), sea stores, or ship's stores; transacts no other business in the port; and departs within 24 hours after its arrival.
( 2 ) It arrives in distress, even though required to enter.
( 3 ) It is brought into port by orders of United States naval authorities and transacts no business while in port other than the taking on of bunkers, sea stores, or ship's stores.
( 4 ) It is a vessel of war or other vessel which is owned by, or under the complete control and management of the United States or the government of a foreign country, and which is not carrying passengers or merchandise in trade or, if in ballast, which is not arriving from a foreign port during the usual course of its employment as a vessel engaged in trade.
( 5 ) It is a yacht or other pleasure vessel not carrying passengers or merchandise in trade.
( 6 ) It is engaged exclusively in scientific activities.
( 7 ) It is engaged exclusively in laying or repairing cables.
( 8 ) It is engaged in whaling or other fisheries, even though it may have entered a foreign port for fuel or supplies, if it did not carry passengers or merchandise in trade.
( 9 ) It is a passenger vessel making three trips or more a week between a port of the United States and a foreign port.
( 10 ) It is used exclusively as a ferry boat, including a car ferry.
( 11 ) It enters otherwise than by sea from a foreign port at which tonnage or lighthouse duties or equivalent taxes are not imposed on vessels of the United States (applicable only where the vessel arrives from a port in the province of Ontario, Canada).
( 12 ) It is a coastwise-qualified vessel solely engaged in the coastwise trade (although arriving from a foreign port or place, it is engaged in the transportation of merchandise or passengers, or the towing of a vessel other than a vessel in distress, between points in the U.S. via a foreign point) (see §§ 4.80, 4.80a, 4.80b, and 4.92).
( 13 ) It is a vessel entering directly from the Virgin Islands (U.S.), American Samoa, the islands of Guam, Wake, Midway, Canton, or Kingman Reef, or Guantanamo Bay Naval Station.
( 14 ) It is a vessel making regular daily trips between any port of the United States and any port in Canada wholly upon interior waters not navigable to the ocean, except that such a vessel shall pay tonnage taxes upon her first arrival in each calendar year.
( 15 ) It is a vessel arriving at a port in the United States which, while proceeding between ports in the United States, touched at a foreign port under circumstances which would have exempted it from making entry under section 441(4), Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1441(4)), had it touched at a United States port.
[28 FR 14596, Dec. 31, 1963, as amended by T.D. 72-264, 37 FR 20317, Sept. 29, 1972; T.D. 75-110, 40 FR 21027, May 15, 1975; T.D. 75-206, 40 FR 34586, Aug. 18, 1975; T.D. 79-276, 44 FR 61956, Oct. 29, 1979; T.D. 83-214, 48 FR 46512, Oct. 13, 1983; T.D. 93-12, 58 FR 13197, Mar. 10, 1993; CBP Dec. 12-21, 77 FR 73308, Dec. 10, 2012]