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24/01/2021

British Firms Advised To Open New Companies In EU To Avert Brexit Costs




British Firms Advised To Open New Companies In EU To Avert Brexit Costs
In order to avoid the extra charges, paperwork and taxes resulting from Brexit, business in the United Kingdom that are engaged in exporting to the European Union are being encouraged by the British government’s trade advisors to open up separate companies within eth EU, claimed report in the British media.
 
Reports claimed that advisers working for the Department for International Trade (DIT) are telling small business in the UK to create and to register new firms within the EU single market so that they can avoid the border issues and VAT problems that have been increasing since January 1 – the day that the UK officially left the EU. This is being seen as an extraordinary twist to the Brexit saga. Distribution of goods by British companies can be much easier from inside the EU.
 
According to a report in the Observer, owners of two British businesses that have been hit by issues because of Brexit have already decided to set up new companies in the WU within the next few weeks because of the advice from experts at the Department for International Trade. The businesses also reportedly said that there were other businesses that are in a similar position as themselves. Advice from government officials of getting registered as a company within the EU have also been given to other businesses but those businesses have not yet taken any decision, the report claimed.
 
Based on the advice of a senior government advice, a new company called Horizon Europe will be registered in the Netherlands in the next few weeks by Andrew Moss, who runs Horizon Retail Marketing Solutions, based in Ely, Cambridgeshire and is a company that sells packaging and point-of-sale marketing displays in the UK as well as to customers in the EU, the Observer report said.
 
This move however will result in some retrenchments in the UK and additional hiring in the Netherlands.
 
“This guy talked complete sense. What I said to him was, have I got another choice [other than to set up a company abroad]? He confirmed that he couldn’t see another way. He told me that what I was thinking of doing was the right thing, that he could see no other option. He did not see this as a teething problem. He said he had to be careful what he said, but he was very clear,” Moss said while referring to discussions with a senior DIT adviser on trade.
 
Businesses are now realizing that Brexit was not about winning back control from the EU but actually investing in the EU to survive, Moss said.
 
A decision to set up a company in the Netherlands for the same reasons has been taken by Geoffrey Betts, managing director of Stewart Superior Ltd, a company in Marlow, Bucks, which sells office supplies to UK and continental customers, the report noted.
 
Prior to making the decision, the same advice was given to him by an official at the Department for International Trade. “When the government said it had secured free trade, it was obvious it was nothing of the sort,” said Betts.
 
(Source:www.thegaurdian.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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