Brexit & Nope

Over the last couple of weeks I have been busy trying to figure out what Brexit will mean for me, A British person who now lives for seven years in The Netherlands. As it stands today it’s as clear as Mud. (Blame is at the UK’s door for this)

This is because as we head closer to the deadline there is no deal in place between the EU & The UK.

The Dutch government have been as you would expect, super pro active as best they can be, I am now an official resident of the Netherlands and I’ve applied for a license to continue to trade with the UK.

In fact Just today I applied for my EORI number with the UK tax office so I can continue to do trade with the UK - why I need a second bit of paper work was not explained on HMRC, but whatever.

So as it stands I’m ready as I can be to trade with my own country when Brexit occurs, That is as much as I or anyone can do for now with regarding what will happen as we edge closer to the deadline day of January the 1st.

The one thing that’s concerning me and i’m sure a number of small independent businesses maybe worried about, is cost.

I know UK shipping charges will increase, all my postal services have indicated as such, but no indication by how much.

What i’m unsure of and maybe UK people will need to be made aware of, Is that despite me setting up a trading license & setting up the EORI number, to continue to trade with the UK it’s going to cost me more money which being a small business i’m not sure I can afford to do vs the rewards.

As an example I order things from the US all the time and when it arrives I have to pay customs fees, which can be quite the shock even for a t-shirt. As it stands my UK customers could be in the same situation come January.

Honestly I don’t know for certain if this will be the case for the UK but I can’t imagine it would be any different, until the UK Government pulls its finger out. So much so I’m incredibly tempted to pause UK sales as of Jan 1st or until there is any clarity what Boris and his sovereign nob heads want to do.

I have also been informed that there will be some extra delays of 2-3 days at UK customs (lets double this estimate because it will be a new process) which will cause untold frustration for me and my customers.

This really raises the question for me as a sole trader - Do I continue to sell to the UK ?

I guess time will tell but it’s not looking very favourable based on the current situation.

I will put out another update when I know more.

Thanks for reading

Mr Nope.