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Spotlight on ...

THE IRISH

JIGSAW

Text: Alan Rhode, Co-Founder Taxmen

Since the early stages of Brexit, only a few cornerstones for negotiation seemed laid down:
one was that no physical border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
should ever be re-introduced. Indeed, it was believed (with reason) that a new internal
border might endanger the peace brought to Ireland by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement
after decades of talks.

egotiations on the Irish question were uneasy, status for the territory that politically still belongs to the United
though. They substantially cost Theresa May her Kingdom.
Npremiership when she failed to have her Brexit
proposal for Ireland approved in Westminster Parliament on Let’s see what happens VAT and customs-wise when we trade
several occasions. with Northern Ireland after Brexit.
Under her successor, Boris Johnson, the European Union and
the United Kingdom finally reached an agreement regarding Trade between the UK and Northern Ireland (and
Ireland, known as the “Northern Ireland Protocol”, in 2019. vice versa)
The first tenet of the agreement is that trade from Northern
Effective from 1 January 2021, the Northern Ireland Protocol is Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom shall take place as it
a very complicated set of provisions. Practically, the underlying used to before the year 2021. There is no additional process or
concept for international trade purposes is that Northern Ireland paperwork, and there are no restrictions on Northern Irish goods
will continue to be subject to the European Union’s VAT and arriving in the rest of the United Kingdom. For trade moving
Customs rules, at least for a certain period. It is a “hybrid” from the rest of the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland, no

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