Amazon.co.uk and the Irish VAT rip off

[Mustang]

I was trying to order some stuff from Amazon over the weekend, encountered some price discrepencies and thought I'd share them here.

Find a book(s), check the price deposit it into basket -Proceed to pay. VAT indicated as 0 regardles of the quantity of books. No problem
Find a DVD, check the price, deposit it in basket, proceed to pay. Find the listed price of the DVD has gone up 5 to 6%. In addition to that there is now Vat being added to the transaction

Having tried this a few times I gave up and just ordered the books. I queried this with Amazon. And the response was as follows:

Listed prices include UK VAT. VAT rate for books in UK and Ireland is 0% (news to me). VAT rate on other items in UK is 15%, and 21.5% in Ireland. They are applying the VAT at the rate of the destination country. Somehow I doubt teh Irish government are getting the 6.5% VAT differential. In addition to that you also now have to pay additional VAT on the packaging because it contains items other than books.
I have never come across this before, with Amazon or any other online retailer. You should only pay VAT in the source (EU) country and not the destination country.
It seems that the transaction is deemed to take place in the country of the purchaser and not that of the vendor.
They are still cheaper than the high street in most instances, but I still don't like this practice.
More info here and here.
On a seperate issue I believe that the reason they will not ship electronics and electrical goods to Ireland is because of the product recycling fund, which they are not willing to administer the payments for.

[TopCat]

Unfortunately, none of the above surprises me these days. I don't really understand the whole VAT situation, so I can't comment too much.
Its slightly OT, but I just wanted to recommend a site if you are buying books, http://www.bookdepository.co.uk. Delivery is free, so even though the books might be a little more expensive, the final amount is generally lower. More importantly, I found the one time there was a problem (I got a book with pages missing) customer support here was brilliant, a quality missing in a lot of retailers these days.

[Dragonheart]

Something along these lines but slightly off topic also is working in a tax free country, such as the UAE (dubai), you make your wages tax free, but if after a few years if you decide to come back home, with the money you have saved, you are liable to pay tax on it bringing it in. Bit unfair seeing as you were living in a different country while earning the money so if anyone should get tax its that country, not the one you´re coming into.

[Bernard]

It's funny isn't it, how a problem well dealt with well can leave you more satisfied than had there been no problem at all.

I had a similar experience with sendit, I got damaged goods.
When I told them, they dispatched a replacement before I returned the originals.