Denmark proposes to abolish tax on books
Aug. 22nd, 2025 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneIn an effort to boost reading, Denmark is proposing to abolished their 25% VAT on books, the highest tax rate on books in the world. This would hit their government revenue stream for about 330 million kroner ($51 million) a year. The culture minister hopes that this will reduce the cost of books and encourage more people to read.
Denmark's VAT rate on books is a bit out of line. From the article: "Other Nordic countries also charge a standard rate of 25% VAT, but it does not apply to books. VAT on books in Finland is 14%, in Sweden 6% and in Norway zero.
Sweden reduced its VAT on books in 2001, resulting in a rise in book sales, but analysis found they were bought by existing readers.
“It is also about getting literature out there,” said Engel-Schmidt. “That is why we have already allocated money for strengthened cooperation between the country’s public libraries and schools, so that more children can be introduced to good literature.”
A total of 8.3m books were sold in shops and online in Denmark in 2023, according to the national statistics office. The country’s population is just over 6 million.
I don't know that people are reading as much as they used to. I can pull up the numbers of how many books my library has lent over time, but if I don't have the corresponding number of how many students and teachers we've had for the same years, that raw number sadly doesn't mean much.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/20/denmark-to-abolish-vat-on-books-in-effort-to-get-more-people-reading
https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/22/0031247/denmark-to-abolish-vat-on-books-to-get-more-people-reading
Denmark's VAT rate on books is a bit out of line. From the article: "Other Nordic countries also charge a standard rate of 25% VAT, but it does not apply to books. VAT on books in Finland is 14%, in Sweden 6% and in Norway zero.
Sweden reduced its VAT on books in 2001, resulting in a rise in book sales, but analysis found they were bought by existing readers.
“It is also about getting literature out there,” said Engel-Schmidt. “That is why we have already allocated money for strengthened cooperation between the country’s public libraries and schools, so that more children can be introduced to good literature.”
A total of 8.3m books were sold in shops and online in Denmark in 2023, according to the national statistics office. The country’s population is just over 6 million.
I don't know that people are reading as much as they used to. I can pull up the numbers of how many books my library has lent over time, but if I don't have the corresponding number of how many students and teachers we've had for the same years, that raw number sadly doesn't mean much.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/20/denmark-to-abolish-vat-on-books-in-effort-to-get-more-people-reading
https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/22/0031247/denmark-to-abolish-vat-on-books-to-get-more-people-reading
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Date: 2025-08-24 05:54 pm (UTC)I went through my storage locker and did a severe weed of my book collection. Probably 80%+ of them went to a thrift store or the local Friends of the Library. Some went to the trash, depending on the condition of the book or my opinion of the author or book: there were some books that I just flat-out did not want to spread around, and had I known about some opinions or things that certain authors wrote about, I wouldn't have bought the book in the first place.
Now 99% of the books that I buy are ebooks. The weed took place in the anticipation that we will be moving again some day and that move may be international, and I just didn't want to shlep all those books with me! The volume was daunting, as was the price: I pay an average of $2-3 for an ebook most of the time.