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But the level is at around £140 so on nett price £28 VAT at 20%. How much does it cost to collect that £28? There must be a point at which the amount collected is greater than the cost of collection.

But there is all the problems as you mentioned of source countries not taxing at all (but that's their loss). The problems include where the UK tax is collected (if at all) and ensuring that cost is know to the purchaser at time of purchase.

Buying from the US (or anywhere outside EU) always required collecting the tax somewhere if not collected at point of sale. Could be it be added to the carriage charge if the seller passes all that on to the carrier and the carrier pays the relevant amount to HMRC? But then how to prevent carrier adding silly charges to cover that, but if big enough they should already have mechanisms in place to pay tax.

I just bought some new pans, French. The best buy originally was from a Dutch company that had free postage over £50. Now carriage is £11. I bought from (I think) a UK company that is cheaper but charges postage under £100. The total cost of items from the Netherlands was cheaper because pans cam to just over £50, but now cheaper the other way round. Even with VAT prices where cheaper from second company.

It's all a mess and not helped with some folk getting in the way where it really shouldn't happen. I believe it will get sorted out but something needs to happen to help those smaller traders (especially fresh stuff) keep going until it all is.

As consumers we often can "see the way" because we are making small, individual transactions. I really can't see why things are more difficult now other than obstacles being put in the way. We could have a free trade agreement and let goods move as they always have done. What are either side afraid of that couldn't have already been a problem as part of the EU as far as moving stuff around goes?