Tax problems

Hi everybody, I'm hoping somebody can help. I have held off posting for weeks while I have tried to find the answer and have followed several tutorials regarding taxes and shipping and followed many post suggestions, but it's not working for me! I know very little about Opencart as this was installed by a friend I am no longer in contact with. I have faced several problems with coding which I have been able to resolve thanks to following the posts on this forum. Thank you contributors. Running OC 1.5.
I have a website which sells to UK and several European Countries. I wish to apply a VAT tax of 20% to EU and UK. Also sell to Norway where 0% VAT is payable. Geozone for UK Set up, Tax Class set up VAT (based shipping address), Tax Rate Set up VAT20% (based Shipping address). Same has been set up for Norway with 0% VAT and works fine and very happy!. Shipping rates have also been set up and both work fine. I am using the tax rate VAT on the products page for these to work.
Now, the other 23 countries in the EU have been set up on one geozone. (have also tried doing them individually). Tax Class is EU VAT (based shipping address) set up, Tax rate set up as EU VAT20% ( tax 20% based shipping address). However, no VAT is being charged on products when customer buys from site?? On my actual product pages I am still using the tax class VAT as thism is the only option. Shipping for Eu countries (which is higher charge than UK) has been set up ok as charging VAT/Tax on postage correctly, just not products. I have tried variations, such as adding eu countries to main UK geozone, but this is not working for me. have tested this as registered user and guest. i am nearly there but missing something.can anyone point me in the right direction please.