Apparently the VAT changes apply to everyone and are quite problematic.

To give a bit of context for those who didn't handle this kind of thing by themselves: VAT used to be handled as part of customs check. In practice that meant that if you were selling to UK (or other EU country) from outside customs union, you'd send your shipment as usual and only attach declaration of contents, and the buyer (importer) would pay VAT and necessary customs fees if applicable.

The new regime apparently requires the seller to setup VAT registration in UK, properly process VAT on their side, then transfer it to HMRC (UK tax agency).

This is a HUGE difference and big burden to both exporters and importers. Yes, importers now don't need to handle VAT - but they are still on the hook for customs fees, and now they have to worry not just about "did the other side file customs declaration right", something moderately easy to fix when it goes bad, but have to deal with "we can't import unless the seller effectively set ups half a company in UK"

Is this entirely true? Isn't the UK now trading with Europe at World Trade Organization tariffs? Or was a better deal made? The EU has trading agreements with a significant part of the world. See this map for example: https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2020/december/tradoc_.... If the UK is now trading at WTO rules they would be worse off than all those countries that have an agreement. Eyeballing that chart about 50% of the world would have an easier route to trade with the EU than the UK.

We signed an 11th hour deal which means we trade on the same terms. We've lost freedom of movement for some tenuous benefits.

I don't think that's true. Before VAT was charged at customs, but I believe now, VAT has to be charged at the point of sale, meaning any non-UK websites selling to the UK have to update their websites and associated logistics

The biggest change is that now the person shipping (or a marketplace if they use it) has to be VAT-registered and pay VAT directly to the government, rather than it be handled by the courier/shipping service who would collect it directly from the recipient before releasing the package to them. I think it's a pretty significant change to how third countries work, especially if they only occasionally ship to the UK.

The EU are adopting the same rules in July, and I'm not sure why we didn't harmonise the introduction date with the EU.

> The freedom of people movement changes are much more concerning though.

I'm keeping an eye out for the first "person who has lived in the UK blamelessly for more than a decade is deported" story. I'm also wondering how patchily the parcel enforcement is going to apply to aliexpress and friends.