Fighting 15s: Brexit update 21 March

Fighting 15s is currently closed to new orders, as expected, until 16 April. We apologise for the inconvenience, but it’s not as if we aren’t working hard trying to clear international orders before a possible no-deal Brexit on 29 March: we are down to the last few before we turn to outstanding domestic orders.
At the moment of writing, the EU is considering whether to extend the Brexit period to 22 May. Update (22 March): The EU has granted two extension dates to Brexit: 12 April if the UK does not agree to the current deal, or 22 May if it does. Parliament also still has to change the law to prevent the UK leaving the EU on 29 March for either of those dates to be valid, so a no-deal Brexit on 29 March is still a possibility. (Update: The law was changed on 27 March.) The first extension date falls within Fighting 15s’ closure period and will have no effect apart from delaying when we can implement changes to the shop; the second may well force a second temporary closure period on us, again so we can clear orders to international customers.
In the run-up to B-day, however, some things have become clearer.
First, on 13 March, the draft import tariffs for the UK were published. These reassuringly show that the expected extra duty on toy soldiers will be 0%, so imports from Australia of AB Figures and Eureka Miniatures will not be any more expensive than they already are. So we will be able to continue importing them to the UK.
Second, yesterday HM Revenue and Customs very kindly sent out what to do in the event of a no-deal Brexit advice with regards to imports. Nine days to go and HMRC sends out advice that was needed three months earlier. But basically Fighting 15s will be filling in far more customs forms than usual.
Third, our post office is now displaying advice that any parcels for the EU that are sent as from 25 March will need to have customs forms (the CN22) on them just in case. This means, of course, that we need to give EU orders a bit more leeway on safely departing the UK tax free, and so this weekend will be devoted to dealing with them. Update: The post office cancelled this advice after the new possible Brexit dates were announced.
So, if you have an order in at Fighting 15s, rest assured we are working hard to complete it. International orders are receiving priority, EU ones first, so they can be sent by 24 March. We’ll then pick up the slack on domestic orders. After that, hopefully the position on Brexit will become clearer and we can sort out the tax regime for each country in the online shop, ready to re-open on 16 April. Update: All domestic and international orders were cleared before the original B-day deadline of 29 March – Fighting 15s is now on holiday, and provided that the shop can be updated in time will reopen on 16 April (a no-deal Brexit on 12 April will probably make this impossible until the shop ca be updated).
Update (2 April): In the event of an abrupt no-deal Brexit on 12 April, please note that Fighting 15s will initially reopen only to UK customers.
Please note that it is still possible to add items to the shopping cart in the Fighting 15s shop. However, it is not possible to check out. We could hide every single item in the shop, but feel that would stop the shop being used to plan future orders – plus it would look damnably empty.