[dvd3500]

From what I have read the "free-trade" agreement does not exclude VAT.
It just excludes additional tariffs.
One issue that flared up in the Spring but has died down a bit was items were being taxed and tariffed if there was no proof that they had actually been produced in the UK. Anything not marked as "made in UK" was being treated as if ti had come from whatever country it was made in (98.958926% of the time China) so tariffs were applied on top of local VAT.

That seems to have subsided a bit. 

There was a mention on the BBC of there being a "transition period" until October while things were sorted out but I didn't get all the details.

There is a thread on here already I think where the BBC looked at how things are going 6 months on. Relatively well balanced IMHO.