Your guide to surviving Brexit

The UK is set to leave the European Union (EU) in the next few months. Currently, this will be without any agreement on its exit terms or future trading relations with the remaining EU members or rest of the world. This guide — from our partner at Avalara — explains how businesses will be impacted by new customs and value-added tax (VAT). It includes a No-deal Brexit Checklist, with details of actions businesses should take now to mitigate the new trade frictions and tax liabilities.

The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)  has written to all VAT-registered businesses that trade with the EU to recommend immediate actions in the case of a no-deal Brexit. This is over 145,000 businesses.

The present plan is for the UK to remain within the EU VAT regime and Customs Union for a 21-month transition period until 31 December 2020. However, this is dependent of the passage of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement in UK and EU parliaments in the next few weeks.

HMRC has therefore recommended the following three actions to help mitigate problems with VAT and customs issues should this not happen, and there is a non-deal Brexit. 

1. Apply to HMRC for a UK Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number. This is required to declare imports and exports to the EU27 countries after Brexit.
2. Consider appointing a customs agent to make import and export declarations. Alternatively, off-the-shelf software packages are available to make the declarations.
3. Ensure freight forwarders have the right information to make full declarations for goods moving between the UK and EU27

 Want to know more and be prepared?

Originally published June 11, 2019. Brexit is a rapidly evolving story; please check back for updates!

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