The EU Court of Justice: on taxes ebook software – Rai News

With a decision more than expected, the Court has determined that it can not be applied to electronic books the same VAT that affects paper books. And now it is feared an infringement procedure against Italy, which from January 1, apply to ebook VAT of 4%. Publishers, writers and booksellers write in Brussels: changed the law

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Celia Guimaraes Brussels March 5, 2015 France and Luxembourg can not apply a reduced VAT to electronic books, unlike what exists for books on paper, ruled the EU Court of Justice.

The Court found that a lower VAT rate can be applied only to supplies of goods and services, thus reducing “is applicable to the operation of providing a book that is on a physical medium.”
Since the electronic book needs to be able to be read, a physical medium, “such support is not yet supplied with electronic book”, says the Court, then the ebook are not equivalent to paper books but the software .
No also to Italy?
In France and Luxembourg, the countries receiving the decision of the Court, the provision of electronic books is subject to VAT rate respectively 5.5% and 3%. Since January 1, 2015 in Italy VAT on ebook has dropped from 22% to 4%, according to the law of stability in which it was received and approved a specific amendment supported by the government. A “battle
of civility and common sense”, had called the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Dario Franceschini, while being aware of the risk of an infringement procedure EU.

> The Italian publishers in Brussels: changed the law The answer
publishers Italian and other European and international associations to the judgment of the European Court of Justice has arrived with an open letter to the President of the Commission Junker, the president of the European Parliament and Schultz to the President of the European Council Tusk.

They demand action “to eliminate the flaw that penalizes the development of books and reading in the whole continent,” because “firmly convinced that the value of a book depends on its size or the way in which readers from accessing it. “

Italian Publishers Association (IEA) and the European Federation of publishers, writers and booksellers reminds the Commission that “this direction would fit in his work program which states that ‘the barriers to digital are barriers to employment, growth and progress’.”