No-Deal Brexit Has Same Customs Cost as ‘Max Fac,’ Tax Head Says

The U.K. tax authority said leaving the European Union without a deal would cost the country’s businesses about 20 billion pounds ($27 billion) a year, or about the same as one of the two proposals being considered by the government for a post-Brexit customs regime.

Businesses would have to file customs declarations in both a no-deal scenario and the so-called maximum facilitation that Prime Minister Theresa May’s inner Cabinet is analyzing, Jon Thompson, chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs, told lawmakers in Parliament on Tuesday. That makes the cost similar, he said, although his estimate for “max fac” doesn’t include any shipment delays.