All posts by Paul McMahon

Customs Scenarios The risk of customs and related would lie both in the event of a no-deal exit with a  kicking in of customs duty and customs compliance costs and in a trade agreement Brexit, with customs controls only, but few if any tariffs. In the latter event, there would be GB – RoI customs […]

Overview and Context The purpose of this article is to set out the data requirements which apply both on exports from Ireland to GB, imports into GB and exports from GB to Ireland under the EU customs code which has been replicated UK law and will take effect on Brexit and under the existing EU […]

Customs Issues Customs procedures worldwide require both export declarations and import declarations. The export declarations are necessary for statistical, VAT, customs control, regulatory and other reasons. Effectively the signal to proceed, green routing or equivalent, must be given both on the export and import side to transport smoothly/seamlessly to the state of import. There may […]

Imports The following data is the basis of both import and export customs declarations as well as transit declarations. The parts of the data relevant to safety and security are used to make the entry summary declaration to the state of import and the exit summary declaration in the state of export. These latter declarations […]

Exports Exports will arise in the Republic of Ireland side respect of direct sales to the United Kingdom. The basic obligation on the export side is to make an exit summary declaration (a safety and security declaration) and a customs declaration to Revenue in the case of export and the Republic of Ireland and to […]

The EU and UK Tariff Rules that will apply In the event of a hard Brexit, the supposition and likely position are that the EU customs code that applies to imports and exports out of European at present would apply to the United Kingdom as a “third” or external country. The United Kingdom has enacted […]

Ascertaining the Logistics provider’s Capacity The nature of freight forwarder and logistics providers services differs from provider to provider. In some cases, a freight forwarder is more of an agent arranging transportation and undertaking customs services. In other cases, the forwarder is more of a carrier providing a whole range of services either directly or […]

Irish and UK Side In order to complete customs on both the UK and Irish sides an establishment i.e. company, partnership or branch will be required in each jurisdiction. Where the following refers to completing declarations on the UK side, it is assumed that such is in the case. Where this is not the case, […]

Reliefs against Duties (Hard Brexit) There are some reliefs from customs duties which may be important if there are customs duties in the first place, such as in a hard Brexit. The reliefs may be reflected in a deferment of duty of in a lower rate of duty. Some reliefs depend on how the particular […]

AEO and Trusted Trader Status A lot of the discussion around alternative arrangements and simplifications post-Brexit has been about there being further degrees of trusted trader status which might be recognised both by the Irish and UK Revenue. Such developments are possible and would be likely to be much more widely available than the AEO […]

Origin The origin of goods is likely to be an issue if and when there is a future trade agreement between the EU and the UK. There is a distinct possibility in a longer free trade agreement between the EU and UK, that there will be zero duties on all or nearly all goods. In […]

Issues with EU Exports Traders should discuss with their  logistics provider / freight forwarder the practicalities, options and costs of continuing to supply EU based customers and import from EU based suppliers after Brexit. It may be that the solution involves using a different route whether by sea or even air transport. Obviously, questions of […]

Transit Simplifications The customs authorities may authorise simplifications. An application must be made and granted for the simplification. Traders or carriers who regularly use the transit arrangement and can show compliance an ongoing basis may be permitted simplification. They are required to keep records and customs authorities are entitled to control and supervise the procedures. […]

Overview Brexit would change the position in relation to VAT unless some kind of special EU UK-VAT arrangement is entered. The present EU arrangements would apply in respect of all territories except the United Kingdom. It is distinctly possible in the longer term in the context of a Brexit trade agreement between the UK and […]

Overview Purchases from UK and EU At present VAT registered traders’ purchases from the UK and the EU are dealt with as intra-EU acquisitions. They are zero-rated by the supplier and that traders self-account for VAT on traders’ Irish VAT return. In effect, this would mean that the notional VAT on acquisition in Ireland is […]

Company Structure This article deals with some of the issues that would arise if traders were to form and trade through a UK subsidiary for their UK business. There would be obligations to prepare and maintain accounts and undertake UK companies’ office returns. It would change VAT treatment and be subject to UK corporation tax […]

Overview Although customs duties and VAT are very directly affected by Brexit, it has much less of an impact on corporation and income tax. There are some marginal EU impacts, which will not directly affect traders in most circumstances in particular, where  they do not  have a group. The issue of tax is very important […]