> British businesses that export to the continent are being encouraged by government trade advisers to set up separate companies inside the EU
The DIT is not advising companies to move to the EU. I'm no expert but VAT has to be paid somewhere and now the process (especially given changes being introduced separately of brexit for e-commerce) is confusing and unexpected for small businesses. The way to deal with this is to set up a company (probably in Ireland) to make accounting easier and obviously avoid tax issues at the border.
That's only part of the problem for goods but seems to be what the article is mostly referring to.
The DIT is not advising companies to move to the EU. I'm no expert but VAT has to be paid somewhere and now the process (especially given changes being introduced separately of brexit for e-commerce) is confusing and unexpected for small businesses. The way to deal with this is to set up a company (probably in Ireland) to make accounting easier and obviously avoid tax issues at the border.
That's only part of the problem for goods but seems to be what the article is mostly referring to.