Tag Archive for Brexit

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Getting ready for Brexit – 6 steps you need to take to prepare

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Originally written by sarahgunton on Small Business
6 steps to getting ready for Brexit
Here, we guide you through the six steps companies should be looking at if they’re getting ready for Brexit with detailed advice as to how firms can best prepare.
#1 – Tax, tariffs and customers
From January 1 2021, an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number is required to move goods into or out of the EU. Register for an EORI number here. All goods imported to the UK will also be subject to UK Global Tariffs from 2021. As a business owner you check what these will be here.
 >See also: EORI number: What it is and how to get or check one
If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, there will be new tariffs on many goods and services that are exported from the UK to the EU. Even if a deal is agreed, there may still be tariffs to pay on some traded items. Those goods that we export to the rest of the world that are currently subject to EU-negotiated tariffs will be subject to new duty rules too, many of which have yet to be agreed.
Getting ready for Brexit

Monitor announcements about new foreign tariffs

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Hot Business News Today

Getting ready for Brexit – 6 steps you need to take to prepare

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Originally written by sarahgunton on Small Business
6 steps to getting ready for Brexit
Here, we guide you through the six steps companies should be looking at if they’re getting ready for Brexit with detailed advice as to how firms can best prepare.
#1 – Tax, tariffs and customers
From January 1 2021, an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number is required to move goods into or out of the EU. Register for an EORI number here. All goods imported to the UK will also be subject to UK Global Tariffs from 2021. As a business owner you check what these will be here.
 >See also: EORI number: What it is and how to get or check one
If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, there will be new tariffs on many goods and services that are exported from the UK to the EU. Even if a deal is agreed, there may still be tariffs to pay on some traded items. Those goods that we export to the rest of the world that are currently subject to EU-negotiated tariffs will be subject to new duty rules too, many of which have yet to be agreed.
Getting ready for Brexit

Monitor announcements about new foreign tariffs

Read more...

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How will Brexit affect my imports and exports? Where to find customs help

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Originally written by Ben Lobel on Small Business
UPDATED: The Government has admitted that British companies trading with Europe will have to fill in an extra 215 million customs declarations a year post Brexit.
And this post Brexit customs bureaucracy burden will cost British businesses around £7bn a year, according to Government officials.
You will need an EORI number
UK businesses trading with EU countries need to obtain an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number if they do not already have one. UK businesses trading with the EU should (if they do not already have one) apply for a UK EORI number from HMRC, to ensure they can still move their goods into and out of the UK post-Brexit. You can apply for a UK EORI number here.
You will also need an EU EORI number
You will also need an EU EORI number when you export to the European Union. You should apply for an EU EORI number from the customs authorities in whichever EU state you deal with the most, to ensure you can still move your goods into and out of the EU. Get this from the customs authority in the EU country where you submit your first declaration or request your

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How will Brexit affect my imports and exports? Where to find customs help

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Originally written by Ben Lobel on Small Business
The Government has admitted that British companies trading with Europe will have to fill in an extra 215 million customs declarations a year post Brexit.
And this post Brexit customs bureaucracy burden will cost British businesses around £7bn a year, according to Government officials.
One way to relieve the burden for businesses will be to use a customs agent to process your Brexit paperwork. Some 50,000 new private-sector customs agents will have to be hired by businesses to deal with UK-EU border paperwork after December 31, 2020.
In 2018, former HMRC head Jon Thompson estimated that the cost of each customs declaration could be £32.50 each but that could go as high as £55.
What does a customs agent do?
A customs agent – also known as a customs broker or import broker – works to make the import and export of goods run smoothly, by facilitating the clearance of goods through customs.
Customs agents are experts in international trade – it’s their job to keep abreast of the changing rules and regulations, and make sure that their clients have all the paperwork and licenses they need to import goods to the UK.
What’s the difference between a customs agent

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Insights for small businesses on how to navigate uncertainty post Brexit

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Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Brexit was officially set in motion last month and the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union is already underway. From January 31, 2020 until the end of December 2020, the UK and EU will be in a transitional period of alignment with the EU during which both parties will hopefully negotiate new trading agreements. Interestingly, the implementation of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU is already throwing up some concerns about how UK businesses are likely to fare at the end of the transitional period.
Brexit will affect everybody living in the UK and in the EU to varying degrees and businesses on both sides of the divide must be ready to adapt to new realities as free trade of products and services and the free movement of people happen under a new set of rules.
A state of uncertainty
For the rest of 2020, businesses are likely to be stuck in limbo even though they are theoretically supposed to be operating under existing trade agreements. The fact that businesses don’t know how the business landscape, their relationship with EU counterparties, tariffs, paperwork, or shipping routes might look like in the next 10 months is precipitating

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Sajid Javid: there will be ‘no alignment’ with EU business rules after Brexit

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Chancellor Sajid Javid warned businesses that ‘there will be no alignment’ with EU rules after Brexit.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Javid said: “We will not be a ruletaker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union – and we will do this by the end of the year.”
The EU wants the UK to stay in line with its regulations in exchange for a zero tariff, zero quota trade deal but the government wants to create rules of its own.
Javid didn’t say which regulations he wants to ditch, causing more planning issues for business owners. Though he told the Financial Times that companies “have known since 2016 that we are leaving the EU,” but admits that “they didn’t know the exact terms.”
The post-Brexit focus will be on ‘human capitalism’, pumping money into ‘skills, skills, skills’ and supporting infrastructure schemes in the midlands and the north. More importance will be placed on regional performance rather than national economic performance, with a view to boosting growth rates to between 2.7pc and 2.8pc per year.
Not all businesses will benefit
Moving away from existing regulations has attracted criticism

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4 tips to prepare for Brexit uncertainty – whatever happens

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Originally written by Victoria Brocklesby on Small Business
The subject of Brexit fills many with dread as we continue to talk about it ad nauseam. That said, one way or another, a decision will be made which will greatly influence how UK businesses operate moving forward. The impact will be huge.
How Brexit has affected my firm
From the moment the Brexit decision was announced, we knew that it was going to be a huge change for us. Roughly 50pc of the aluminium we buy is from Spain and Germany, while a large number of our workforce comes from Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. We are still continually working to assess the risks Brexit might throw at us and how we might mitigate them, in both the short and long term.
Initially, we introduced several safeguards to ensure our operations continued at the usual high standard. We invested heavily in relationships with our European suppliers, who agreed to extend our credit terms across the entire turbulent Brexit period. On top of this, more than £3.5 million of aluminium profile was stockpiled at our factory in High Wycombe, so that we would not be impacted if there is ever any border controversy. Additional support

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Brexit extension: ensuring your business is ready for the new deadline

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Originally written by Jo Thornley on Small Business
Brexit uncertainty is now very much, in US parlance, a ‘known unknown’ which will affect everyone in the UK in a variety of ways.
The good news is that now that the deadline has been pushed back to 31 January, you have more time to prepare.
Brexit opportunities and challenges
Preparing for withdrawal from the EU should be slightly easier for a small to medium-sized business simply because their smaller size means they can often respond faster and more flexibly than their corporate competitors. So as an astute entrepreneur you should try to stay alert to any such niche opportunities Brexit may send your way.
However, your chief concern will be to weather Brexit uncertainty as best you can. To do this successfully, your first and most vital step must be to keep yourself informed about political and economic Brexit developments at both macro and micro levels.
This will require 360-degree vigilance because some issues may directly affect your business trading, perhaps in the form of new legislation. Other issues may indirectly affect your cash flow by impacting upon your supply chain or by altering the priorities of your customer base.
Elsewhere, there may be other changes which affect

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Over half of entrepreneurs favour a Norway-style Brexit deal

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
New figures reveal that 55pc of small businesses would want rules similar to Norway for goods and services post-Brexit.
This means we would stay in the single market and continue to follow EU rules for goods and services with reduced influence on said rules. We’d retain our full continued access to the EU market and free movement.
Justin Donne, who runs a consultancy in Nottingham, sources products from France, Germany and Italy as well as Amazon and suppliers from the USA. He believes that staying in the single market is important.
“If all of a sudden there are customs charges [for exchanging goods in the EU], I’ll be reticent to make purchases – and so will businesses over there.
“Some things I need aren’t available in the UK. I would love to find local goods but I’ll likely be forced to find alternatives which could be inferior,” he told SmallBusiness.co.uk.
Feelings of optimism and doubt
Despite the uncertainty around Brexit, business leaders are feeling positive. A poll of almost a thousand members of the Institute of Directors (IoD) shows that the majority of firms managed to grow over the past year, with 13pc at least doubling their turnover.
However, half

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Businesses would be hit by annual £15bn customs bill under no-deal Brexit

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
UK and EU businesses would be hit with a collective yearly customs bill of £15bn after a no-deal Brexit, according to HMRC.
Its impact assessment said:
“The latest statistic estimate for the annual administrative burden on UK businesses from import and export declarations is £7.5bn (updated to reflect 2017 UK data) with import declarations for all EU trade in goods movements.”
It said that additional administrative costs will also apply to businesses in the EU because an export declaration from the UK will need to have a corresponding import declaration into the EU and vice versa.
This analysis comes from the trade statistics evidence base, used by the World Bank in compiling their Doing Business report in 2017. So, HMRC estimates that the static total ongoing administrative burden on UK-EU trade is £15 billion (updated to reflect 2017 data) a year.
The report also highlights that the average time taken to fill out a customs declaration form will be one hour and 45 minutes for high volume declarations but doesn’t specify for low volume. It did show that small traders importing low volumes would pay £56 per form, assuming that low volume traders would outsource their declarations.
More changes

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