Tomorrow is a dark day for small businesses in the UK

[lostmybuttons]

I run a small business, mostly selling on Etsy. But as of tomorrow, Friday 13th December the introduction of the new GPSR legislation is creating such a huge headache for businesses like mine.

We can no longer sell to the EU or Northern Ireland, without paying for an appointed representative to ensure our products are safe. The cost for this is completely unachievable for most businesses like mine. Obviously, we all want our products to be as safe as possible but is it right that it'll cost me at least £2,000 a year to tell me my paper stationery is safe!!

Our only choice is to stop selling to the EU and Northern Ireland, which is a huge loss in income for those already struggling.

We feel like we are shouting into the void and absolutely no one is listening.

This is compounded by the fact that Etsy refuse to separate Northern Ireland in our shipping settings, so by default we are all breaking the legislation and risking fine of up to £20,000.

All Etsy have advised is to cancel any NI orders, which frankly is terrible customer service.

If there was ever a time to shop independent, your small business friends need you now.

Yes exactly, this is the fallacy of Starmers plan... that he can have a closer economic relationship with the EU without rejoining SM/CU or EFTA... its not really possible.

He wont even rejoin Erasmus.

Hi Op, not read the full thread, but i think some of this is likely to be a bit less frustrating than we think at this point. Apparently you can "group" products together by category rather than needing a separate EU rep for each product (for example if you create paper products, art, cards etc you might be able to batch them as one category of product). And creating the paperwork should be doable your end provided the supply chain is legit and your products are safe. There is some good info coming out - I watched a govt presentation the other day about it - I think it was the UK export council or something like that. you might be able to watch it still if you get in touch about it (not sure how long it is available for though):

https://www.great.gov.uk/export-academy/events/regulatory-frameworks-including-gpsr-and-ce-marking-what-you-need-to-know-05-december-2024/

One of the thing she stressed was please don't stop shipping there - there's more market share to be had (due to people dropping out) and compliance might not be as difficult as you think, once you've complied with the basics. Yes it is super annoying but I think things will become clearer in time. Things like adding languages on is not necessarily as hard as you think because you can use Deepl to translate and so on.

I also read something somewhere that suggested for now they are less likely to focus on non-compliance by small traders like Etsy sellers for now (as long as you are making progress towards compliance) - the main focus is Temu, Shein type places with some questionable products. But don't hold me to that!

Another thing that is helpful is putting the EU guidance into AI (such as NotebookLM) and asking it to summarise the important bits that could affect you. NotebookLM only summarises the content that is in front of it (and won't add or hallucinate like ChatGPT) so i found it quite helpful for this. You will get there!

Also with regards to safety info on the card - I don't think there's a reason you couldn't put a separate slip of paper inside the card or in the cello bag or something (rather than on the back of the card!). I'm sure there are ways around it.

Did you know the female boxer in the final in the Olympics wanted to apologise for not shaking his hand after he beat her in the ring. Alright forget woke the world has turned mad.

Good news for Etsy sellers! Seems they've finally, eventually - listened and we might be able to separate NI from shipping (not yet, obviously....)
https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/1093438529659

Wrong thread?

We are used to mediocrity no one says a thing we are sheep. All people do is complain and never hold our government or anyone else accountable for what is going on.

NI has closer trade ties to the EU than the rest of the UK. It behoves the UK government to recognise this.

We just kicked the Tories out after 14 years, thats holding to account isn't it?

The EU has had leaked its negotiating plan for talks on a better trade deal with the UK....

Fishing access, FOM - for younger people, following more EU rules inc ECJ... in return for better trade.

I'd have thought Starmer would have realised all of this by now...

So don't hold your breath any improvement in trade access.

I mean they do recognise it, but I don't understand what you think they should actually do about it! The UK government has no say over the way that the EU regulates goods, and it is bound by the promises it made in the Withdrawal Agreement, the Windsor Framework and the Good Friday agreement.

I did a lot more of my ordering via small businesses this year. It hasn't gone well.

One gift for my daughters birthday tomorrow hasn't arrived despite leaving plenty of time and was dispatched 3 days after the estimated delivery date.

Another was apparently dispatched on Dec 3rd, I had an email on Dec 10th saying 'sorry we're sending today' and explaining that when they print their labels it gets marked as dispatched but usually not sent til days later.

Small business shouldn't equal awful customer service.

Yes and all plans are a wish list. The great thing about negotiating is you end up with a compromise to suit both sides.

I've ordered two things from Etsy that were cancelled and refunded a week later. Ordered in November thankfully so no big issue. That's never happened before. One thing took three weeks. From Hong Kong I think.

It's not as hobbyist these days I suspect.

Yes, I always filter for UK companies but still some bad experiences this time.

Please can someone tell me how I can limit my listings so that they cannot be seen in the EU? I read the article posted above at 22.45 and noted it said something about updating your shipping locations but it does not say how. I find the Etsy site quite hard to use and cannot see anything eg in settings. My individual listings just have a UK delivery service and an 'everywhere else' service. Everywhere else covers everywhere Etsy trades but I want to eliminate all the EU countries. Thanks.

You need to delete Everywhere Else and add a new shipping option for each country. It’s a major PITA. For now I would prioritise USA, Canada (postal strike not withstanding), Australia. Then you can add in others over time.

Oh my word! That is going to be some undertaking! But thank you, I've been struggling with that for 2 days now. Tbh, I am still thrown by the need to register as a sole trader. I am going to pause trading completely until April by which time I hope to have figured out what I am going to do.

Sole trader sounds complicated but honestly, it really is dead simple. I’ve done it and I hate this sort of thing! And yes no need to rush at all.

I'm just a bit worried about being investigated and fined for not registering years ago.

Although, if I factored in my costs, I don't think I've ever exceeded the £1000 limit, but I can't prove my costs as I have never kept receipts for anything. I dont know what you sell, but I make items by hand and obviously buy raw materials with which to make my items. Is your business similar? Do you have to keep receipts (for 5 years?) And declare all your costs when you fill in the self assessment form?

How many years are we talking? You can file up to four years of back taxes online, more than that and I think you need to contact them. You won’t owe any tax interest since you are under the threshold, but you may have penalties for not filing, although these are often waived when voluntarily filing like this. And yes my business is like yours. I use self employed tax software which pulls in all of my expenses and earnings from my bank account / credit card which makes it easy for me to figure out. It pretty much does everything for me in that regard, I just have to mark which expenses are business or personal. I use QuickBooks Self-Employed. I’m sure there are other options as well, I just find this one very easy to use. I’ve been doing this since 2016 although my Etsy business has slowly declined over the years as it became more flooded with items. I thought this latest GSPR development would be the death knell but I will just exclude all of the EU and cancel any NI orders until Etsy sorts this out 🙄

Anyways this probably sounds a bit overwhelming but it’s not bad at all once you get going.

No idea why my reply was hidden! Must have been flagged as spam 😵‍💫 Hopefully they unhide it as I was just discussing HMRC and your tax situation, and what I use to file my taxes with! Which I have no affiliation with (sadly as they are a big company so wouldn’t mind the £££ )😅.

Use this Gov.uk form to check to see if you need to register with HMRC https://www.gov.uk/check-additional-income-tax

As @CatContortionist says it's not as horrendous as it sounds.

A lot of micros don't realise when they have to register so you are not alone but they are cracking down a bit more since a lot of people have micro businesses alongside work.

I didn’t know about this, I take it this is for all non EU countries, doubt USA will be pleased, although with Trump upping import tariffs…

It is this that needs to be in the media not some Z list celeb.

I hope Kier will be doing all he can… heaven help us!

Thanks @MarkingBad, that page just basically confirms you can make up to £1000 without the need to tell the IR, but over £1000 you do. It's a useful link though as it shows you what to do next.

@CatContortionist I've been on Etsy about as long as you though I only can see back to 2017 (7 years being the financial limit, I guess). I know so far this year I have not exceeded £1000 - hence why I will be pausing my shop from now until April to ensure I don't go over the limit - and last year I had other stuff on so I only took a small amount. It's previous years I am worrying about and your reply basically told me I am right to worry. It is not that I think I owe any income tax. I know I dont. My employment history has always been very patchy, temporary work, part time, low wage. The Etsy sales would nowhere near take me over the threshold for tax. It is just that I didn't know I had to register as a sole trader and some years I may have got close to earning £1000 through Etsy. I certainly don't want to be fined for not doing something I had no awareness needed doing, and honestly, although you say it is simple, I really don't fancy keeping records and filing tax returns much.

It is really stressing me. Dh has a better idea of this sort of thing so he has agreed to sit down with me and see if we can pull together some figures for the last few years to see if I really need to worry.