Apply for a grant to help small and medium-sized businesses new to importing or exporting

For any of our clients new to importing or exporting, there is a new Government initiative to apply for a grant of up to £2,000 to cover the costs of training for the various VAT and Customs changes following Brexit.

We have summarised the main details of this grant below. For any further questions on this grant, you can contact our team here.

The SME Brexit Support Fund could give you up to £2,000 to help with training or professional advice, if your business has up to 500 employees and no more than £100 million annual turnover.

You can use the grant for training on:

• how to complete customs declarations
• how to manage customs processes and use customs software and systems
• specific import and export related aspects including VAT, excise and rules of origin

It can be used to help you get professional advice so your business can meet its customs, excise, import VAT or safety and security declaration requirements.

To be able to apply, your business must:

• be established in the UK
• have been established in the UK for at least 12 months before submitting the application, or currently hold Authorised Economic Operator status
• not have previously failed to meet its tax or customs obligations
• have no more than 500 employees
• have no more than £100 million turnover
• only import or export goods between Great Britain and the EU, or move goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, if you already import or export goods from or to a non-EU country you are not eligible for his grant

Your business must also either:

• complete (or intend to complete) import or export declarations internally for its own goods
• use someone else to complete import or export declarations but requires additional capability internally to effectively import or export (such as advice on rules of origin or advice on dealing with a supply chain)

How to apply:

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is administering the grants for HMRC. Applications will close on 30 June 2021 or earlier if all funding is allocated before this date. See further details on the Government website here.