Scope for future application of reduced value-added tax rate to digi-books

Questions have been tabled in the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament on the treatment in terms of value-added tax of digital books, journals, newspapers and magazines. To date these have come under the “regular” (higher) rate, whereas their printed counterparts by contrast benefit from the reduced (lower) value-added tax rate. It has only been since December 2018 that the EU’s VAT Directive 2006 has made it possible to treat all books, journals, newspapers and magazines alike irrespective of their format. Efforts are currently under way – all of this within the parameters of the EU’s VAT Directive, it goes without saying – aimed at devising an accurate definition of “digital” when used in conjunction with books, journals, newspapers and magazines. The State Secretary for Finance expects to be able some time during the first half of the current year to publish a draft bill, the ambition being to ensure that the reduced value-added tax rate should apply across the board to books, journals, newspapers and magazines of either format from the first of January 2020 onwards.

Dutch version: Laag BTW-tarief digitale boeken mogelijk per 1 januari 2020