Charged VAT on child’s football boots - is this right?

D

Dr Strangelove

Registered User
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I bought a pair of football for my son on the Nike.com website. Priced in euros, I was billed by an Irish entity and dispatch address was marked as Ireland too.

When I looked at the invoice I noticed there was standard-rate VAT levied on the boots even though they were a size 4.5.

Should VAT have been levied? I thought footwear for kids up to size 5.5 was exempt.
 
mathepac said:
amazon.co.uk was at this too, charging VAT on books shipped to Ireland.
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I think this is a Brexit thing. All exports are zero-rated in the UK but Irish 23% VAT is charged on import.

Maybe with Nike.com the warehouse is in the UK so it’s the same treatment. But I looked at the email and it mentions a Nike Dutch entity and the invoice gives the address of a Nike outlet store in Kerry. Maybe I’ll challenge them.
 
@Towger i looked at the rules and it says standard rate of 23% applies if the boot comes from a range which spans adults and children. In this case it does, the boot range I bought from runs from UK size 1 to 12.

But then the Revenue guidance says that zero-rating should apply up to size 5.5 if it “can be shown that they [the boots] were designed for the use of children”.

I mean children clearly use football boots so a size 4.5 boot should be zero-rated. What am I missing here?
 
Update:

I had an online chat with a Nike customer service agent. Their English was poor and they couldn't really understand my point.

They just kept repeating something like "Policies are same for all EU countries we do not make changes for Ireland".

I might email them to challenge it further and see what happens.
 
T McGibney said:
I doubt Revenue will care once the VAT collected is duly remitted and there is no unjust enrichment if the trader.
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I’d be almost certain that this is the case.

But it’s public policy (enacted in legislation) to have zero VAT on children’s footwear. If Revenue won’t ensure the law is enforced who will?
 
T McGibney said:
I doubt Revenue will care once the VAT collected is duly remitted and there is no unjust enrichment if the trader.
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They do care, have seen companies getting into trouble in an audit for changing a higher VAT rate for a product than they should have.
 
Towger said:
They do care, have seen companies getting into trouble in an audit for changing a higher VAT rate for a product than they should have.
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Really? What sort of trouble?

Usually, difficulties arise when the rate charged is too little and the trader is forced to make good the shortfall.
 
The Nike store in Killarney Co Kerry is closed for two years .
 
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