So this ERG VAT amendment Government just accepted, won by 3 votes.
- No Common VAT area
- No VAT alignment means potentially no Irish backstop
- so endangers Withdrawal Agreement, and thus transition
- Upfront, large VAT liabilities unless every EU state brings deferment scheme
- No Common VAT area
- No VAT alignment means potentially no Irish backstop
- so endangers Withdrawal Agreement, and thus transition
- Upfront, large VAT liabilities unless every EU state brings deferment scheme
“VAT now central to whether theres a super hard Brexit” says one industry expert. And Brussels will now be getting v mixed messages re Chequers, says connected Charles Grant:
Chris Giles was all over this.. how many MPs understood the VAT amendment they just voted through?
Entirely plausible that on basis of this legislation, both on VAT, NI and the already unlikely “let us stay in customs union where we need it but let us outcompete you on tariffs elsewhere” FCA, Brussels now decides to let us know what it really thinks of Chequers/ White Paper.
That said, someone rather clever has pointed out, on the basis of the Patten Good Friday Agreement amendment to the EU withdrawal Bill, that the VAT amendment might itself be illegal!
