Hundreds of small to medium businesses are bracing themselves for a financial maelstrom in the wake of DEFRA’s implementation of the Common User Charge. Officially the ministry sent out thousands of invoices during the first week of August, many of which have yet to turn up. CUC has been charged on imported plant and animal-based products since the end of April. As well as billing three months’ worth of tax in one fell swoop, there is a widespread concern that a significant proportion of the bills will end up with people who are part of the supply chain but not actually liable for settling the account. Preliminary estimates of impending invoices run to thousands of pounds a month.
Often referred to as the “Brexit border tax”, the Common User Charge was devised by the previous Conservative government. It was presented as a mechanism to recover the costs of border checks for inbound goods, but this notion should be taken with a pinch of salt. The most potent multiplier in a CUC bill is in fact the number of consignments in a load, making it a damping influence on grouped shipments. These account for around two thirds of UK food imports.
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