Minister Donohoe welcomes Revenue’s intensified Brexit engagement with businesses

The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform, Paschal Donohoe, has today (Wednesday) welcomed Revenue’s intensified Brexit engagement programme with businesses who trade with the UK.

Revenue’s focus is on supporting and assisting those businesses that will be immediately impacted by Brexit. Revenue are writing to traders, on a phased basis, outlining the most critical Brexit preparation steps that businesses must take in order to be ready by 31 October. This includes an application to Revenue to obtain a customs registration, more commonly known as an Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number. However, there are also a number of other steps that a trader must take to be ready for the changes in customs formalities for trading with the UK post Brexit.

Commenting on Revenue’s latest engagement with businesses regarding Brexit, Minister Donohoe noted

“Revenue are intensifying their engagement with businesses who they expect will be impacted by Brexit. I welcome the fact that some businesses are actively preparing for Brexit and have taken the first critical step of getting their EORI number. This is positive. However, if you are one of the businesses that hasn’t yet taken action to prepare for Brexit, don’t leave your business at a disadvantage, take that first step and apply for your EORI now.”

Minister Donohoe cautioned businesses

“If you trade with the UK, Brexit will most definitely impact your business. It is of great importance in minimising disruption to your business come 31 October that you act now. You should also:

Apply for an EORI number
consider how you will make your customs declarations and if you require a customs agent to assist you, post Brexit
talk to the businesses who transports your goods or products to help you identify your supply chain
Determine the origin and Commodity Code of your goods or products.

Minister Donohoe concluded

“I strongly urge all businesses who receive a Brexit preparedness letter from Revenue over the coming weeks to take note of their advice, act now and ensure that your business is Brexit ready for 31 October deadline.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

EORI Registrations

Details of the number of EORI registrations since 2017 is as follows:

Year	Number of EORI Registrations
2017	2,595
2018	2,976
2019 to date*	7,255

*reflect figures to 12 July 2019

2018 Trade Profile Data

Threshold value

Number of cases

Overall value of imports

% value of imports where cases have an EORI registration

% value of imports where cases do not have an EORI registration

Overall	92,360	€20.8 bn	85.1%	14.9%
< €5,000	47,193	€61.61 m	19.18%	80.82%
€5 - €50k	28,257	€522.07m	34.03%	65.97%
€50 -€100k	5,670	€400.84 m	48.27%	51.73%
€100k - €1m	8,854	€ 2.69 bn	70.63%	29.37%
Cases above €1m	2,386	€17.17 bn	89.74%	10.26%

Source: VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) Returns

Statistics related to VIES Imports from the UK

Threshold value

Number of cases

Overall value of exports

% value of exports where cases have an EORI registration

% value of exports where cases do not have an EORI registration

Overall	6,328	€15.4 bn	84.28%	15.72%
< €5,000	736	€ 1.48 m	64.82%	35.18%
€5 - €50k	1,659	€36.34 m	70.10%	29.90%
€50 -€100k	676	€49.10 m	73.50%	26.50%
€100k - €1m	2,049	€744.20 m	82.77%	17.23%
Cases above €1m	1,208	€14.63 bn	84.08%	15.92%

Statistics related to VIES Exports to the UK

Revenue’s Trader Engagement Programme

Since 2018, Revenue has had a comprehensive trader engagement programme to raise the awareness of businesses of their customs obligations in order to ensure that legitimate movement of goods is as efficient and interruption free as possible, post Brexit:

84,000 letters issued in November 2018 to businesses likely to be impacted by Brexit
extensive engagement with large economic operators, logistics companies/freight forwarders, Customs Agents, SME’s across a broad range of sectors and software providers interacting with customs IT systems
15 Trader Outreach seminars at various locations nationwide, attended by over 2,100 participants from a broad range of sectors
continuous engagement through various fora including:

-the Customs Consultative Committee (made up Revenue and representatives of import/export trade organisations)

-by participation in events organised by other Departments and State Agencies (e.g. Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia)

-industry organised events, and

-meetings with representative groups

direct engagement with specific significant logistics companies and larger importers across various sectors who have not yet registered for customs. The purpose of this direct engagement is to emphasise the critical importance of Brexit preparedness and of the range of information and support available from Revenue
frontline engagement by Customs Officers talking to over 2,000 truck drivers in Dublin and Rosslare Ports to ensure they understand and are aware of the changes that Brexit will mean for their journeys.