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

D

Dr Strangelove

Registered User
Messages
1,371
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.
Click to expand...
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?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register