Ok, I had to look this up to see what it actually entailed, and this is what I learned.
Link where I got the information.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/ans...-added-tax.asp
Value-Added Tax (VAT) Examples
By J.B. MAVERICK
Reviewed By LEA D. URADU
Updated Dec 29, 2020
A value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax that is levied on a product repeatedly at every point of sale at which value has been added. That is, the tax is added when a raw materials producer sells a product to a factory, when the factory sells the finished product to a wholesaler, when the wholesaler sells it on to a retailer, and, finally, when the retailer sells it to the consumer who will use it.
Ultimately, the retail consumer pays the VAT. The buyer in each earlier stage of the product's production is reimbursed for the VAT by the subsequent buyer in the chain. VAT is commonly used in European countries. The U.S. does not utilize a VAT system.
VAT is commonly expressed as a percentage of the total cost. For example, if a product costs $100 and there is a 15% VAT, the consumer pays $115 to the merchant. The merchant keeps $100 and remits $15 to the government.
So if the price of the ebook was orginally 3.99 with 10% VAT added on, it would bring the price to 4.38 if the publisher decided to pass the price on to the customer. So if this is correct, we would pay 4.38, and the publisher would have to send the additional .39 to the government, keeping the orginal 3.99. But since the price was 3.99 with and now without the VAT, I guess that means the publisher decided to take the loss of .39, and kept the 3.60 remaining from the sale of the ebook.