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Old 01-14-2010, 09:58 AM   #28
Sweetpea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Direct Ebooks View Post
Another point to bear in mind is that in Europe, VAT tax is applied on eBooks at up to 21% which is significant.
This adds greatly to the retail price of eBooks.
Even now, because of this, many of us retailers are down to to about 20/25% of the rrp.
Thats before discounts.
Retailers are also charged a fulfillment fee by adobe etc to deliver the eBook to the customer.

I'm not complaining - just pointing out some hidden factors and costs.
ebooks are in the high VAT rate, yes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by neilmarr View Post
I'm no UK tax expert, DE; but I read somewhere recently that that 21% VAT is applied to sales of purchased 'goods'. If an ebook is merely licenced, it should be taxed as a 'service' at 6%. This right? Cheers. Neil
It's the other way around actually. Books have the low VAT rate (which is 0% I believe in the UK), while ebooks are actually "services" and thus have the high VAT rate.

Strange situation:

I go to a store, buy an audiobook on CD.
Price: 10 + 6% VAT = 10,60 euro.

I go to a webstore and buy exactly the same audiobook on MP3 (aka, download it)
Price: 10 + 19% VAT = 11,90 euro.
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