Last time we wrote about the impact the Brexit deal coming into force has had on us, and this week, we’re looking into some of the finer details and how it affects us specifically.

All of our teams are affected in some way, although our goods out and DC team have felt the brunt of it.

FLOW OF GOODS

On Christmas Eve, the UK and EU agreed on a tariff-free trade deal, meaning that the flow of goods would not incur import duties, assuming they meet the ‘Rules of Origin’ conditions (manufactured in the UK, not just shipped from the UK).

VAT would be applicable at the local country rate and is payable either by the end consumer before delivery or if we ship ‘DDP’ (Delivered Duties Paid), it would be applied to our customers’ service invoices and the end consumer would have nothing further to pay.

The new regulations are that any shipment with a commercial value less than EUR 150 is exempt of import duties (regardless of origin). Any shipment with a commercial value less than EUR 22 is exempt of VAT, but this will change on 1st July when VAT will be collected by the marketplace/checkout when the customer purchases up to the value of EUR 150. Anything over EUR 150 will continue in the current collection method.

The EU Market Access Database has a good indicator of the tariff amounts to each country.

We need to ensure that the correct information, such as retail value, country of origin and tariff code is submitted electronically to the courier to accurately apply the charges.

SHIPPING IT OUT

In terms of shipping – very simple – we send on a DDP basis and it’s as we were before Brexit from the consumers perspective. Our customers would just receive an invoice for the relevant duties and/or VAT with their service invoice.

We use DHL for this process, and as things stand, they apply a deferment fee when they pay the duties and taxes on our clients’ behalf.

With the timeline given by the government we had less than three days to update the courier requirements and make sure we had everything in place. We’d like to thank our team for all their continued hard work to ensure our clients needs are met.

If you’re interested to speak to us about how we can help with your requirements post Brexit, please get in contact.