Doing Business after Brexit: what you need to know

No tariffs, no quotas, the headlines said. But there is significant change. To move goods, borders now matter in a way they didn’t before: even between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

Our briefing below considers some of the key changes, what you need to be aware of and how best to deal with the administration. If you would like help managing your way through the new red tape, please do get in touch.

Excerpts from our briefing - for full details please click on the link below.

Before Brexit, VAT on trade with the EU entailed minimal paperwork. There was also access to a range of VAT simplifications. This has changed. Broadly, rules on the supply of services have changed less than the rules on the supply of goods. One key change relates to business to consumer (B2C) supplies of digital services, such as apps and downloads. For suppliers of such services, the B2C simplification applying to the sale of digital services, UK VAT MOSS, is no longer available; registration for the MOSS non-union scheme in an EU member state is needed instead.

Postponed VAT Accounting Ordinarily, import VAT is due when goods arrive in the UK. Although it may be recoverable in accordance with normal VAT rules for reclaiming input tax, the timing difference impacts cash flow. PVA allows goods to enter free circulation in the UK without upfront payment of import VAT. Instead, it’s declared and recovered as input tax on the same VAT return. You don’t need authorisation to use PVA. You simply opt in when completing your customs declaration, by selecting that you will account for the import VAT on your VAT return. Using PVA is mandatory in some circumstances, for example when using delayed customs declarations (see below). For further information, see https://bit.ly/39VNahb and https://bit.ly/3fT7hjW.