I'm working for a while now on eBook projects and recently I visited another customer who wanted to start to sell eBooks as well via his online shop.
When I mentioned eBooks have a VAT rate of 21% rather than 6% here in Belgium he was baffled and was wondering how his pricing should look like. Will that make the eBook more expensive than the print book or do reduced production - i.e. printing - cost fill this gap?
France an Luxembourg apply lower tax rates for their eBooks however, they are in conflict with EU rules and are taking it up in court.
"Rules on VAT on e-services that take effect from 2015 will end the unequal treatment of e-books and paper books, the Commission said."The EU will also look into a court case of Finland where the judge asked more clearance in the EU rules and future directions regarding eBook tax rates.