Irish VAT charged by non Irish based company

I've done a search on this but couldnt find anything.

How can companies such as Komplett.ie and Expansys.ie charge VAT at 21% on goods if they are not based in Ireland and do not trade from Ireland, they solely ship to Ireland. Should they not be charging the rate of VAT from whatever country in the EU they are based?

I've searched for any economic link with the state with the above companies and found nothing, no registered business name, no limited company... but yet they can charge Irish VAT..

Anyone have any idea why?

Re: VAT charged by non Irish based company

As far as I recall if they do over a certain amount of business to Ireland (c. €50K+ p.a. seems to ring a bell?) then they are obliged to charge Irish VAT rather than VAT local to where they are located. I think this is a general EU thing so the same would apply to an Irish company doing business to another EU country. Not sure if this is a general thing or specific to online sales. I'm sure that one of our tax experts can comment more authoritatively.

There is a distance selling threshold in Ireland of €35,000 (fairly sure). If Komplett exceeds this amount of mail order sales to Ireland they have to register in Ireland for VAT and charge Irish VAT.

Same applies is they exceed the distance selling threshold in other European countries.

I am assuming this is distance selling into Ireland from another EU member state. Where goods are dispatched to people not registered for vat in Ireland by taxable persons in other member states the place of supply is the member state from which the goods are dispatched. This is the case until a certain threshold is reached where after this the place of supply is Ireland.

The registration threshold is 35K S3 (6) (d) VATA.

They also do not have to wait till they reach the threshold and can just register for VAT in Ireland from the outset. Most likely if VAT rate in other EU member state is greater then it is in Ireland.

Thanks HS/Taximan - might also be of interest to people.