Brexit.

So Brexit has happened - with a last-minute deal, at least that. I'd fully been expecting it to be a no-deal hard Brexit, after all the to and fro and inabilities, or unwillingness, to settle on all kinds of things.

The way it's now, though, is bad enough. These days, it will require a passport, which I'd need to get (I have no clue where my old one is stashed, but since it's been years and years since I last needed it, I'm sure it's been expired for ages anyways), and taking home some delicious foodstuffs as souvenirs, like we always did, is out. You can't even take a ham sandwich for your own consumption into the EU from the UK anymore. With the pandemic still in full swing everywhere, though (and looking at the numbers, lovely London is one of the last places I'd want to travel to right now), it does look like it might be a while until we go to Britain again for a holiday anyways.

Much worse than waiting for a while to return to one of our favourite countries for our own fun and leisure, though, are the work-related aspects of the Brexit - and those also hit me personally, and to my great dismay.

As of January 1, I will unfortunately not be able to sell goods to the UK anymore. So I'm now shipping worldwide... with the exception of the UK. Seriously, it's easier and less hassle to ship wool to Australia now than to sell anything to the UK. Why? Your answer has two words: No Threshold.

All countries except UK have an import threshold, which means that as long as you only sell and ship small amounts of things, with a limited overall value, to said country, you do not need to register for VAT there. You pay the taxes in your own country, and that's it. At some point, when you export much more than the tiny fish like me do, you'll need to register in the other country; but below the threshold, it's considered to be just not worth the paperwork and hassle and time consumed on all sides.

Brexit Britain does not see it like this. They have ruled that there is no threshold, which means that as soon as you sell to GB for just one single penny, you will have to register for VAT there. Registration and being in the register may or may not mean a fee incurred, but even if it's free, it would mean I'd need to fill out extra paperwork every quarter year, sales or no sales.

That in itself would be a hassle, but one I'd still consider. Now comes the clincher, though. If I make any sales, I need to pay the VAT to a British account, which means a bank transfer from EU to non-EU and with a currency change inbetween. That means that in the very best case, I pay a currency conversion fee plus close to 10 € for the bank transfer itself. In the worst case, bank transfer fee is about 40 €. For one single transfer! So if I sell stuff to the UK for 10 €, I send 2 € to the UK and pay somewhere between 10 and 40+ € to my bank for this privilege.

Is that ridiculous, or is it ridiculous? So that means I'll not sell things there from my shop anymore. Should there be a change in UK policy, I'll obviously reconsider - also if someone decides to buy half my shop stock, racking up an enormous bill that would make me a rich woman at once, I'll reconsider. Until then, though... good-bye, shipments across the Channel.

I'm very, very sorry that I have to do that, especially as Britain is a place I really love. Here's hoping things will get better again in the future, and easier for small traders like me - not because I'm getting less revenue with no orders from the country, but because I can imagine how heartbreaking and sad it must be if you live there, and would like to have nice things from across the borders, and the people making and selling these nice things just can't send them with reasonable terms...