Comments on: European Union taxes e-books but not p-books

By: Piet van Oostrum

Piet van Oostrum — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:39:46 +0000

The reason that was mentioned here in The Netherlands for the high rate on e-books is the DRM that publishers put on them. This generally implies that you have a restricted right to use the book. For example there could be a time constraint on its use. Therefore `buying’ an e-book is considered a lease instead of a sale. In other words a service, and for services the high rate is used.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:51:23 +0000

European Union ministers voted to allow all member states to charge the low rate VAT on books that have a “physical means of support” – in English, this means printed books or books on CDROM, but not downloadable e-books.

In the UK, charging “the low rate VAT” on printed books would mean replacing the existing 0% rate with a new 5% rate.

In the UK all attempts to tax printed books have been met by campaigns against “a tax on knowledge”. Replacing printed books taxed at 0% with e-books taxed at 15% raises the possibility of broadening the tax base painlessly without anyone noticing. After all, ‘The art of taxation is to pluck the maximum number of feathers from the goose with the minimum amount of hissing’.

By: Kirk McElhearn

Kirk McElhearn — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:05:17 +0000

In France, there’s 5.5% VAT on paper books. For e-books, if the above is true, it would be 19.6%.

By: dot tilde dot

dot tilde dot — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:06:10 +0000

it is not true, at least not for germany, that p-books are exempt from vat. they are taxed 7% in germany, which is the reduced rate.