Online Traders "Drown in Admin" of New Sales Tax Laws

They were meant to target big multinationals like Apple and Amazon, but new sales tax rules may be damaging small businesses.

Industry groups say thousands of small companies are facing closure, thanks to the extra cost that comes with a change in the way sales tax or VAT is collected on digital products.

Companies selling these goods used to add VAT based on where their business was located. But that meant Amazon could register in low tax Luxembourg and filter all their European sales through there, gaining a market advantage.

The new rules aim to stop all that. From the start of this year, online traders selling in Europe have to apply sales taxes based on where their customer is. And a few months into the change, this is causing major problems as the BBC's Simon Tulett has been finding out.