EU ECOFIN fail to agree on the reduction of VAT on e-Books

28 July 2017

The EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) have failed to reach an agreement on reducing the VAT rate on e-books to match that of printed material.

ECOFIN is an EU council consisting of economic and finance ministers from all EU member states, who are responsible for setting EU polices in three main areas: economic policy, taxation issues and regulation of financial services.

In an ECOFIN meeting held in June 2017, where the reduction of VAT on e-Books was discussed, the Czech Republic representative objected to the measure, raising concerns about potential VAT fraud in the sector and requested a wider review of general digital services VAT treatment.

Currently digital publications are subject to the standard rate of VAT across the EU, while printed publications (offering the same reading content) are normally taxed at reduced rates.

LATEST NEWS

European Public Prosecutor’s Office confirms €13bn...

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) recently released a report revealing that over half of the investigated EU budgetary losses up until December...

SEE MORE
VAT news
LATEST NEWS

Slovenia delays the introduction of mandatory...

The Slovenian government have proposed a delay in the mandating of e-invoice reporting for B2B transactions to 1 January 2027.  This new implementation date...

SEE MORE
VAT news
LATEST NEWS

Canada: Nova Scotia to decrease its standard...

From 1 April 2025, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia will reduce the HST rate applied within the province from 15% to 14%. There are no other HST rate...

SEE MORE
VAT news

Gated Content

The following email providers are not accepted: gmail, hotmail, yahoo. Please use proper company email.