UK eases no deal Brexit import declarations and tariffs for UK businesses

8 March 2019

In the event of a no-deal Brexit, the UK tax authorities (HMRC) have eased some of the potential new import requirements in the case of UK businesses trading goods between the UK and the EU. These changes will be limited to roll on-roll off (Ro-Ro) UK ports and will exclude shipments from Ireland to Northern Ireland.

Currently, the UK is scheduled to leave the EU on 29 March without any transitional deal in place. This would mean that goods brought into the UK from the EU would be treated as imports requiring a full customs declaration (SAD / Form C88) and payment of any import tariffs applicable.

It is estimated that some 245,000 UK businesses will have to complete customs procedures for the first time and in order to reduce the burden that this puts on them, HMRC have confirmed that import requirements will be eased at Ro-Ro locations under a new Transitional Simplified Procedure (TSP) scheme.

TSP will allow UK businesses to:

• Defer submitting a full import declaration until the fourth of the month following the import – Instead a simplified import submission will be made at the port of entry requiring less information.
• Duty payments will be deferred to the month following the import - This will require businesses to set-up a direct debit with HMRC to pay the tariffs and HMRC have stated that more detail will be released shortly.

Registration for TSP opened to UK businesses at the beginning of February and any business wishing to register can do so here.

Also HMRC have stated that any UK businesses that does not currently have an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number, which is the number that allows them to import goods into the UK, should make the application now via the HMRC website.