That is weird. The way it is supposed to work (in my country at least) is: If a company is registered for VAT they will charge you X net price + Y amount of VA

That is weird. The way it is supposed to work (in my country at least) is: If a company is registered for VAT they will charge you X net price + Y amount of VAT for their items. If a buyer is also a VAT-registered company they subtract Y from the amount of VAT they owe (so it is a tax credit). If you buy from a small company, not registered for VAT, you only pay X, because the seller is not subject to VAT, so they do not have to add it. So, you only pay X, and the fact that you can't subtract Y from the amount of VAT you owe is irrelevant. So, the small companies have a competitive advantage of not having to add 20+% of VAT to their prices.