We are Brexit Ready - November 2020

We are Brexit Ready - November 2020

In anticipation of the end of the Brexit transition period and the UK leaving the EU single-market on December 31st 2020, we have been working hard to ensure we can continue to supply our customers in Ireland with minimal disruption.

Although even at this late stage the trade agreement between the UK and the EU has not been finalised, we expect the following new rules and procedures to be applied when the transition period ends:

• All shipments will require Commercial Invoice documentation - at present we always affix a copy of the standard invoice to the outside of our parcels going to Ireland, however the new rules will require much more in depth information to be included.
• The invoice will need 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 will have all of this information ready by the end of the transition period.
• 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 tested the format and structure of this file with DPD's shipping software, all tests have come back successful and we are confident this will not have any impact on our ability to despatch orders on time.
• As this file is created by our website in the background, from the 1st January 2021 we will only be 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 expect (however this has not yet been finalised and confirmed) that shipments from the UK to Republic of Ireland will be subject to Import Duties upon arrival in the destination country. The amount of duty that will be levied depends on the type of goods being shipped (the duty for certain categories is around 2%, whereas for others it could be up to 6%). We will look to provide an estimate of the duty that may be due to be paid upon import to Ireland when you place your order. DPD will contact you once the parcel is ready for delivery, however you will need to arrange for the duty fee to be paid before DPD will be able to actually deliver your order. More information around the process for this will be provided by DPD once the parcel is ready.
• We also expect (however again this has not yet been finalised and confirmed) 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 after the transition period. There may, however, be local VAT to be paid once the order arrives in Ireland. If this is the case, we expect the method for collecting the VAT will be similar to the method for collecting duty detailed above, and any VAT due will need to be paid before DPD will be able to deliver the parcel.

As always, if you have any feedback or questions regarding our Brexit preparations or any of our other products and services please do not hesitate to get in touch, [email protected]

Many thanks, Team HWOS