{"id":1742,"date":"2018-10-30T11:52:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T00:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/?p=1742"},"modified":"2018-10-30T11:52:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T00:52:56","slug":"eu-council-allows-vat-free-status-for-ebooks-and-audio-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/articles\/2018\/10\/30\/1742\/eu-council-allows-vat-free-status-for-ebooks-and-audio-books\/","title":{"rendered":"EU council allows VAT-free status for ebooks and audio books"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The European Union\u2019s (EU) Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) has agreed to allow all member states to\u00a0give ebooks and audiobooks\u00a0the same value-added tax (VAT) status as printed books, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebookseller.com\/news\/eu-council-takes-vat-e-books-869716\">reports the\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebookseller.com\/news\/eu-council-takes-vat-e-books-869716\"><em>Booksell<\/em><em>er<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While the new rules do not compel EU member states to align the ebook and print book rates, it would mean a 20% reduction in the tax currently applied to digital publications if they choose to do so.<\/p>\n<p>The European Commission said the decision, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/articles\/2016\/12\/05\/82044\/tax-likely-to-come-down-on-ebooks-in-the-eu\/\">first proposed almost two years ago<\/a>, would allow digital publication VAT rates to align with the \u2018more favourable regime\u2019 currently in place for printed publications.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Today&#8217;s decision is the final step to ensure that the unequal treatment of the two products\u2014paper versus digital\u2014becomes a thing of the past,\u2019 said the Commission.<\/p>\n<p>Read more at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/articles\/2018\/10\/03\/116549\/eu-council-allows-vat-free-status-for-ebooks-and-audiobooks\/\"><em>Books+Publishing<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Union\u2019s (EU) Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) has agreed to allow all member states to\u00a0give ebooks and audiobooks\u00a0the same value-added tax (VAT) status as printed books, reports the\u00a0Bookseller. While the new rules do not compel EU member states to align the ebook and print book rates, it would mean a 20% reduction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,40,20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-international-news","7":"category-news","8":"category-newsletter"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}