Registering for an EORI number is just the first step to prepare for Brexit

In order to continue to trade with the UK as an Irish trader and the EU if you are a UK trader after Brexit, Chartered Accountants Ireland is urging businesses North and South to plan now. This involves obtaining a customs registration or EORI number and assessing whether or not they have gaps in customs knowledge that could prevent them from trading post Brexit.

Regardless of whether customs duties apply, customs declarations must still be submitted to tax authorities and traders will need to have customs expertise and software to file these declarations; otherwise they will need to hire an agent to do this on their behalf.

To complete the returns, traders need to know the goods classification number or commodity code, the customs value of goods and the origin of the goods to determine the amount of any duty payable. Otherwise goods will be detained at ports and borders because Revenue and HMRC officials will check that the proper declarations are in place. Revenue estimates that customs declarations are expected to increase from 1.4 million to 20 million per year Ireland and increase five-fold in the UK to over 250 million once the UK leaves the EU.