After three years of dominating the news (in the UK at least), Brexit has been extremely quiet for much of the year. This is hardly a surprise given that we have been in the thick of a global pandemic that has changed so much about the way we live, but also given that the UK has been in a transition period since leaving the EU on 31st January.

But this autumn, Brexit has shot back up the agenda with a vengeance.

The clock is ticking and the transition period is set to end at 11pm UK time on 31st December, deal or no deal (a phrase which may be familiar to anyone with even the slightest passing interest in Brexit). In June, the UK government emphatically decided not to apply to extend the transition period by the 1st July deadline.

Pandemic notwithstanding, negotiations have been ongoing throughout the year, but neither side has presented an optimistic outlook on the prospects of breaking through the deadlock ahead of December. Political leaders on both sides have urged their negotiators to work intensively but acknowledged that significant gaps remain between them.

In this guide, we take a look at the key milestones, the status of the negotiations and what businesses can do to prepare for the end of the transition period. Surprisingly to many, it’s not simply a question of waiting to see if there’s a deal and what it looks like. We know already that many significant things will change even if there is a deal. We therefore consider across some of the most affected areas what January 2021 might look like and what you can do now to prepare your business.