On Friday 8 January, Janet Pierce, Founder and Principal at Charter Tax was a guest speaker at Ward Goodman’s first ‘WG Hub Live’ event of 2021, where a panel of experts discussed ‘Trade After Brexit’.
As ever, the event was hosted by Ian Rodd from Ward Goodman, who introduced the other speakers – Simon Heath and Howard Marsh – both from Descartes, a business which provides cloud-based logistics and supply chain solutions. Ian explained that businesses needed to gain an understanding of international trade deals post-Brexit.
The event kicked-off with a presentation from Howard Marsh, who looked at the main UK custom changes and said that a great deal of businesses were ‘not ready’ for the new customs declarations which are now required. He talked about the key information needed on a customs declaration and the supporting paperwork, discussing the requirements pre-departure, at the border and post-arrival. He also highlighted the importance of keeping good internal records (and holding onto to these for six years).
Ian then introduced Janet and said she had been invited to speak due to her ‘very strong technical background in UK and international tax’.
Janet explained that we had a fair idea how VAT would work, as the UK already dealt with non-EU goods coming into the country. However, she pointed out that businesses importing into the UK would now require a ‘duty deferment account’.
She explained that there was a key change for B2C businesses importing goods under £135 into the UK. The vendor is required to charge UK VAT, meaning a lot more non-UK businesses will have to register in the UK. If, however, the sale is being made on an online sales platform, such as Amazon, then there is a requirement for the online sales platform to collect the VAT.
Janet also looked at how the situation has now changed for UK businesses buying in one EU country and selling to another (without the goods coming into the UK). This, she explained may mean that a UK business might have to register somewhere in the EU, leading to some practical issues to be dealt with.
