MOVES to overturn crippling tax changes will take too long to save many Oxfordshire traders from going out of business.

That is the stark warning from an MEP who has written to officials in Brussels calling for more urgency.

Anneliese Dodds, Labour MEP for the South East, is among those battling new VAT regulations which cover online trading.

The European Parliament will begin discussions in September but a solution is unlikely to take effect until 2017.

Ms Dodds said: “For the thousands of our constituents who have written to us in desperation about these new rules, simply saying ‘we will look at this in 2016’ is not good enough.

“People are worried about their very livelihoods here.”

The changes, aimed at firms such as Amazon to pay more tax, came into force in January.

Until then, VAT was charged at the rate of the country where the supplier was based, but is now charged according to where the customer is.

Anyone selling digital services including screensavers, e-books, online magazines, software or even knitting patterns must register for VAT, even if their turnover is under the UK’s £81,000 threshold.

Witney-based author and co-founder of pressure group EU VAT Action, Juliet McKenna said: “If we have to wait two years, people are going to go out of business.

“This is affecting the knowledge economy, which promotes high-value tech skills, it’s not just about granny selling knitting patterns.”