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

Lithuanian reduced VAT rate changes

The Lithuanian Ministry of Finance confirmed that it will: Increase the reduced VAT rate of 9% to 12% affecting such services as domestic passenger transport...

SEE MORE
VAT news
LATEST NEWS

Gibraltar to introduce a 15% sales tax

As a result of a post-Brexit agreement between the UK and Spain, the British overseas territory of Gibraltar will introduce a 15% sales tax by 2028. Post...

SEE MORE
VAT news
LATEST NEWS

Philippines delays implementation of VAT on e-services...

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) delayed the introduction of VAT on supplies of digital services by foreign providers to local consumers to 1 July...

SEE MORE
VAT news

Gated Content

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