We Are Brexit Ready... Are You? - January 2021

We Are Brexit Ready... Are You? - 18th January 2021

Important information for customers below - action required!

Following DPD's temporary suspension of services to ROI and the rest of Europe last week, we are now once again in a position to ship orders to EU countries. We have been working hard for some time pre- and post-Brexit to ensure an uninterrupted supply to our customers in ROI, unfortunately we were impacted by DPD's temporary suspension but we have re-enabled services to ROI on our website and are once again trading almost as usual.

As a quick recap and summary of the changes we've had to make...

• All shipments require Commercial Invoice documentation - previously we always affixed a copy of the standard invoice to the outside of our parcels going to Ireland, however the new rules require much more in depth information to be included.
• The invoice needs  to include detailed descriptions, country of origin information, internationally recognised product commodity codes and import duty information for each line item. We've been working hard to accurately categorise and determine the country of origin of each and every product listed on our website and are confident we now have this information ready to go.
• We need to send this information electronically to DPD before the order is shipped, and they will pass the information to the relevant authorities. We have been able to automate this process so a file containing all the necessary information is automatically created when your order is placed. We have thoroughly tested the format and structure of this file with DPD's shipping software, all tests have come back successful and we are now using this process to create labels and invoices for ROI shipments.
• As this file is created by our website in the background, from the 1st January 2021 we are only able to accept orders to ROI via our website, and will not be able to process phone, email or fax orders as we do now. We may be able to find a workaround to this in future, however in the short-term we will need all ROI orders to be processed via our website. 
• We are now able to confirm that all orders to the Republic of Ireland will be able to be sent without UK VAT being charged, meaning we will no longer be collecting UK VAT on ROI orders. There may, however, be local VAT to be paid once the order arrives in Ireland. If this is the case, we expect any VAT due will need to be paid before DPD will be able to deliver the parcel. More information regarding the UK VAT process for export of orders can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/va...

In order for us to export goods to ROI and the rest of the EU we require you to provide us with an EORI (Economic Operators' Registration and Identification) number before we can accept your order. This is true for all exports from the UK to the EU, regardless of the supplier you are using to source goods from.

We strongly urge every customer in ROI, whether you import regularly or just every once in a while, to apply to Revenue Ireland for your own EORI number. In our experience with the UK authorities, the form only takes around 5 minutes to complete and we received both of our new EORI numbers within a couple of working days of submitting the application.

You can find more information from Revenue Ireland relating to EORI numbers and applications at the following link:

https://www.revenue.ie/en/onli...

Without a valid EORI number we will not be able to accept any orders to ROI as we cannot be certain they will clear customs without delay or if at all.

Important Note for all customers in Northern Ireland:

Post-Brexit, shipping and customs rules will be changing for shipments from Great Britain to Northern Ireland as well. It is our understanding that very soon the processes for shipping to Northern Ireland will be very similar to the model outlined above. 

In order to avoid a "hard-border" between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland, it appears the decision has been made for customs and import information to be required for all shipments headed for the whole of Ireland. Officially these rules are in place now, however a transition period has been agreed until 1st April 2021 and at present we are still able to ship orders without any additional information or paperwork.

Following the end of the transition period customers in Northern Ireland will also require their own EORI number to receive goods from Great Britain. As above, we strongly encourage all customers in Northern Ireland to apply for their own EORI number as soon as possible.

You can find more information from the UK Government relating to EORI numbers and applications at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/eori

We are working hard to do all we can to minimise the impact on our customers following the UK's decision to withdraw from the European Union and are doing our best to anticipate and react to any changes we are subject to. If you have any questions at all we'll be more than happy to help, please contact James directly at [email protected] 

Many thanks as always, Team HWOS.