Could somebody explain how Brexit affects NI very simply to me please?

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

Imagine I'm a small child because I'm having some trouble getting my head around it. As I understand it they are part of the UK in all matters except as regards importing and exporting goods because the border for that now runs through the Irish Sea.

How the fuck can that work? I mean, what are the logistics of it? Can they seriously not buy goods from another part of their own country without import/customs duties? And who would they pay customs duties to?

Have they been completely sacrificed for the convenience of the UK govt? Surely life is going to be a bit awkward in this sort of half-way state.

Bump

NI is being treated as being in the EU from an Eu perspective, and in the U.K. from a U.K. prespective (for VAT).

So for goods moving from the U.K. to NI it will be a ‘deemed’ export, but there will be no additional duties / VAT then there are now - it will be charged VAT and will usually recover it. So additional admin but no real cost.

If a business in NI trades with the Eu (typically ROI) there is no change from pre brexit, so it’s deemed to be in the EU hence no additional duties / VAT.

The duties part can be complex because there are lots of special regimes that can change what’s due, but that’s the crooks of it.

So, what does that mean for goods that move through NI from the UK to Ireland? I would quite often use Parcel Motel to order stuff from the UK because delivery would be cheaper to Belfast and then Parcel Motel would move it to Dublin and I'd pick it up from my local lockers. Parcel Motel has suspended its Belfast depot for the time being, but are there going to be something in place to prevent it from operating in future? It seems like a pretty wide open back door if not.

So U.K. to NI will be a deemed export, so U.K. vat would be charged and there would be customs declarations into NI. Based on free trade agreement - no actual custom payable.

NI to ROI no real change.

Check out An Post's Address Pal.
Though they've nearly doubled the price they charge.

I was put off Address Pal when I used it a couple of years ago, the company I was ordering from wouldn't deliver to NI, only to mainland UK, so I couldn't use Parcel Motel. It took An Post 5 weeks to deliver the damn thing to me.