Will we get a deal? Will there be another general election? Will there be another delay?
That’s the thing about Brexit — it throws up a whole load of questions but there’s a real shortage of answers. One thing we do know though: uncertainty is bad for business.
Whilst the uncertainty makes it difficult to plan for Brexit, Clear Books is committed to preparing your accounting software to help your business through the transition. So, here’s exactly what we’re doing to help prepare your accounting software for Brexit.
The Clear Books Brexit plan
In the absence of any concrete information on the business landscape post-October 31, we’re doing everything we can to cover our (and your) bases: we’re looking at multiple scenarios, the likely regulation shifts these scenarios will bring and the changes we’ll need to make to Clear Books software to maintain the compliance, reliability and accuracy you’re used to.
We’ve put together a working team that includes product leaders, development team leaders and support leaders from across the Clear Books business. They’re already busy behind the scenes assessing Brexit developments and as soon as we have a Brexit announcement they will determine the scope and priority of any changes, they’ll review and update the software and they’ll ensure that our help materials and system guides are up-to-date.
Areas most likely to be affected
Of course the scenario most likely to bring significant change to your accounting practice is a no-deal Brexit.
If we leave the EU without a trade deal, anything you import from the EU will be subject to the type of VAT rules that currently apply to non-EU countries, and will have a knock-on effect on our software and how you use it.
The areas most likely to be affected include:
VAT Treatments
If imports from the EU are to be handled in a similar way as those from non-EU countries, any sales or purchase invoices raised post-Brexit should no longer have the following current VAT treatments;
- Goods to EU customer
- Services to EU customer
- Digital Services to EU customer
EC Sales Returns
For goods leaving the UK for the EU, VAT registered UK businesses will still be able to zero-rate sales of goods to EU businesses — but as they won’t be required to complete EC sales lists, the Clear Books EC sales feature will need to be reviewed.
VAT MOSS
In the event of a no-deal Brexit, businesses will no longer be able to use MOSS, the UK’s Mini One Stop Shop portal, to report and pay VAT of sales of digital services to consumers in the EU, which means our current VAT MOSS feature will also have to come under review.
Our support team will keep you posted
We realise that the thought of so many changes will be worrying for you and for your clients so our support experts are also an integral part of the team working on our Brexit strategy.
They’re primed to keep our communication channels updated with any Brexit-related developments and software changes. We’ll be in touch via email and you’ll find everything you need to know in our blogs, our social media platforms, our in-product messaging and in the Clear Books community. As soon as we have anything to share, you’ll know about it.
Our partner organisations, HMRC and ICAEW, are also offering small business owners advice on dealing with Brexit preparations. The following two articles are particularly useful:
However, if you’d like further information or reassurance, your account manager will be happy to go over our Brexit preparations and how they’ll affect your accounting practice or small business. Call the team between 9am and 5pm weekdays on 0800 862 0202.
