UK Government Brexit Professional Advice Grants for SMEs

The UK Government’s SME Brexit Support Fund has opened for applications.

The Fund is targeted at SMEs who trade with the EU, and provides grants to support professional advice around customs, excise, import VAT and safety/security declaration requirements.

Grants

Grants of up to £2,000 are available for training and professional advice in relation to trading effectively with the EU.

The grant can be used to obtain professional advice so your business can meet its customs, excise, import VAT or safety and security declaration requirements. That can include advice on specific aspects of regulations such as clarification of rules of origin.

The grant can also be used for training on how to complete customs declarations; how to manage customs processes and use customs software and systems and specific import and export related issues.

A mix of different advice and / or training can be obtained, subject to a total cap of £2,000.

Qualifying Expenditure

Professional advice or training costs must have been paid or committed to on or after 11th February 2021.

Consultancy costs relating to domestic tax obligations, tax planning, recruitment or any business function not directly related to import or export movement of goods between GB and the EU are excluded.

The claim for payment including acceptable evidence of expenditure will need to be submitted within two calendar months of the grant offer being issued, and by 31 August 2021 at the latest.

Eligibility

Your businesses must:

• have no more than 500 employees;
• have no more than £100 million turnover;
• have been established in the UK for at least 12 months before submitting the application, or currently hold Authorised Economic Operator status;
• import or export goods between Great Britain and the EU, or move goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
• either complete (or intend to complete) import or export declarations internally for your own goods or use someone else to complete import or export declarations but require additional capability internally to effectively import or export.

Declarations means the preparation of customs declarations paperwork and/or digital activity (whether import or export declarations), including relating to Safety and Security, excise and import VAT and submission of these to customs authorities.

Other conditions relate to having a good compliance record with HMRC (a history of non-payment of tax for example could result in disqualification) and not having obtained in excess of £180,000 in aid during the current and two previous fiscal years from HMRC or any other public authority.

Deadline for applications

The fund will be administered by PwC through the pre-existing Customs Grant Scheme.

Applications will close on 30 June 2021 or earlier if all funding is allocated before that date.

How to apply

Register at the fund website here. Once you’ve done this, you’ll receive an email with your username and login details. You can then apply for the grant.

To do so, you’ll need to provide details of the advice or training you’d like, details of the external provider you’ve chosen and the supplier’s quote.

We’re here to help

If you’d like us to help you with your post-Brexit trading needs, please contact Neil Amner – our Brexit and Business Resilience Lead.

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