Coping with the end of Transition – HMRC Letters

HMRC has sent letters to VAT-registered businesses in Great Britain trading with the EU, or the EU and the rest of the world. They explain what businesses need to do to prepare for new processes for moving goods between Great Britain and the EU from 1 January 2021.

Measures explained in the letter include:

• making sure they have a UK Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number
• deciding how they will make customs declarations
• checking if their imported goods are eligible for staged import controls.

You can see the content of these letters here.

The end of Transition is the 31st December, which will be here really fast, given that we have the festive period in there too. If you haven’t yet looked into the impact that this may have in your business, we’d recommend doing so over the next few days!

There are likely to be direct but also indirect implications too.

• Where do the materials come from that you use in your business? If they’re imported, what contingencies can you put in place in case supplies are disrupted? What are your suppliers doing to prepare?
• If you export, have you considered moving goods before transition, so you have a stock outside the UK to use as a ‘buffer’ until things settle down? Have you checked that you don’t need new approvals or markings before you can sell them?
• If you recruit from overseas, or might consider doing so, have you looked into the new Visa sponsor requirements?

There are some Government run webinars that might be helpful to take you through the changes that may affect you. You can find these and watch them on demand at www.gov.uk/transition-webinars.