Payment & shipping for a UK noob...

I'm a Zen Cart noob and although the site won't be live til new year I can't seem to get my head around shipping and payment requirements.
The store will be my first dabble into business other than eBay so need some pointers towards setting it up. e.g. A UK customer buys a product and on checkout they'll pay VAT on the product and select a shipping rate. No problem, I go this far already but say the customer is in New York, I guess he won't be paying VAT and wil need a different shipping method? How about France, or non EU country? I'm having a chat with my uncle (an accountant!) who can hopefully shed more light on the tax/vat/book-keeping side of it but I don't think restricting to UK online sales only is a good idea, kind of beats the versatility of eCommerce? :unsure:

Contact a courier someone like DHL or UPS to find out their shipping rates and apply them to your store.
You'll have to set up different tax rates for the different areas you ship to, define whether you are gonna base your shipping rates per item, per weight or per order.
You'll also have to set up the different zones and currencies and keep a track of the exchange rates.
My advice would be to buy the Zen Cart Handbook as everything is covered in that.