Hitherto, the UK has had a threshold for mandatory VAT registration: if your VAT-able turnover (sales within the EU) exceed the threshold, you must file a VAT-1 and register, but if your VAT-able sales are below the threshold (e.g. you do B2B sales to customers outside the EU -- which aren't VAT-able -- or your turnover is just plain low) you aren't required to register. As of the current time, the threshold is £81,000 per annum turnover: arguably, if you're turning over that much, you can bloody well afford the bookkeeping costs.

Unfortunately not all EU countries have a lower threshold and the new arrangements have a lower threshold for mandatory VAT registration of any amount -- a single €0.99 sale in Estonia and whoops, you need to be registered to collect and pay VAT in Estonia or via your own tax authority's One Stop Shop.

If the £81,000 threshold applied to the new arrangement, nobody would be shouting. But as it is, this will kill a huge number of spare bedroom businesses and start-ups.