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Movement of goods between EU and UK after Brexit

Starting from January 1 2021, the withdrawal of the UK from the EU will determine significant changes in the movement of goods.

Purchases and sales of goods and services with the UK won’t be treated as enjoyment/use of a service, delivery/shipping of goods and the related invoices, and the submission of the Intrastat list won’t be required.

Starting from January 1 2021, the procedure for transactions (movable property) will be:

SALES OF GOODS:

  • Issue of the invoice non-taxable according to Art.8 of the DPR 633/72 for export goods.
  • The goods and the related papers must be presented and submitted to the Italian customs to complete the customs export procedures, pre-departure, with issue of the DAU (SAD)/ DAE form with MRN number.

PURCHASES OF GOODS:

  • Goods arriving from the UK must be accompanied by a customs document and must be presented (along with commercial documents, invoices with the attached packing lists, declarations, and all the required papers) to the Italian customs to immediately complete the import procedures for customs clearance, the payment of VAT and other eventual customs and exercise duties. It is fundamental to pay close attention to the sanitary requirements and to other eventual import restrictions, just like for any other non-EU country.

Purchases and sales of services with taxable persons in the UK:

SALES OF SERVICES:

  • Issue of the invoice exempt from VAT according to Art. 7ter of the DPR 633/72, no Intrastat list to submit.

PURCHASES OF SERVICES:

  • GENERIC SERVICES: Receipt of the UK invoice and issue of self-billed invoices subject to the related VAT rate.
  • FOR GOODS INCOMING FROM THE UK (e.g. transport or expenses incidental to the costs of transportation): the amount must be declared in the customs declaration and will constitute the taxable amount, along with the value of the goods, for the collection of the import duties.

According to the current provisional agreement, UK/EU trade in goods won’t be subject to duty if preferential origin is conferred on the goods. The text of the preferential origin
invoice declaration (the so-called “invoice declaration”) has been published, and suppliers must issue it to their clients to obtain zero-rating.

We recommend, if the goods fulfil the conditions, to encourage your UK suppliers to add the statement on origin in the invoice and to issue this information on your commercial documents.

As it stands, you can attest the origin on the invoice declaration simply by referring to your business’s EORI number, but there are reasons to believe that this simplification will soon fall under the rules for the statements on origin and a registration in the REX will be
required, as it applies to trades with Canada and Japan. Therefore, if you don’t have an “approved exporter” status, for extra-EU sales, we recommend getting in touch with your
territorially competent customs office to submit your request.

Currently, we can offer the following services at Verona customs:

EXPORT

  • with EU customs declaration issued on the last EU border (e.g. Le Havre in France).

IMPORT

with issue of the related customs declaration and collection of custom duties. For the arrival of goods from the UK, forward to your supplier your customs destination’s code, the Verona customs code (IT136100), which must be included on the UK customs documents.

Special attentions should be paid to operators in Northern Ireland. Currently Northern Ireland is still part of the EU, therefore for all the commercial transactions will still be
applied the regulations on the trade in goods and services between EU countries, with the submission of Intrastat lists at the right frequency. The only difference will be the change of
the country code and the prefix of the VAT numbers of the local taxable persons, which will be XI instead of GB.

The topics of this article have been vaguely discussed and they refer to generic transactions of goods; for specific cases, such as food, sensitive goods, goods subject to excise duties, and for any doubt in relation to your company and your specific needs, please contact our staff for further information.