Reducing VAT on e-boooks, to match printed books rates

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by John F

Did someone say there was? I thought we were talking about the intent of the VAT reduction (from the government's point of view).

And from the big publishers point of view they are not interested in making ebooks cheaper. When demand is rising, you raise your prices. If they don't apologize and adjust, then you know that they don't have the reader's best interest in mind.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by John F

Did someone say there was? I thought we were talking about the intent of the VAT reduction (from the government's point of view).

It is very common for companies and people to not act as government intends, sometimes for good reason, and sometimes not.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

It is very common for companies and people to not act as government intends, sometimes for good reason, and sometimes not.

Just as it is very common for governments to offer up "rationales" for a law when they don't expect or intend any such thing.

[John F]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

It is very common for companies and people to not act as government intends, sometimes for good reason, and sometimes not.

And it is very common for companies and people to act as government intends, sometimes for good reasons, and sometimes not.

And it is very common for companies and people to spin things or play dumb, when they know they are not acting as the government intended, see DuckieTigger's posts.*

*I don't mean to imply that DuckieTigger is playing dumb, but how he explains how companies may spin things.

[John F]

And I'm guessing that ebook prices will go down due to the VAT reduction. It seems like a PR nightmare if they don't.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by John F

And it is very common for companies and people to act as government intends, sometimes for good reasons, and sometimes not.

And it is very common for companies and people to spin things or play dumb, when they know they are not acting as the government intended, see DuckieTigger's posts.*

*I don't mean to imply that DuckieTigger is playing dumb, but how he explains how companies may spin things.

But it is still premature to jump all over the publishers. They have not had time to react and they probably are still working out how to remain functioning under the pandemic (which might include reducing e-book prices).

I do not doubt that amazon's system requires them to do it book by book.

JKR was probably able to act quickly because of the small number of titles, or maybe JKR has more on the ball, or maybe JKR is less greedy. It is just too soon to know yet.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

And from the big publishers point of view they are not interested in making ebooks cheaper. When demand is rising, you raise your prices. If they don't apologize and adjust, then you know that they don't have the reader's best interest in mind.

And when done in times of natural disasters, consumers see it as price gouging.

[John F]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

But it is still premature to jump all over the publishers. They have not had time to react and they probably are still working out how to remain functioning under the pandemic (which might include reducing e-book prices).

I do not doubt that amazon's system requires them to do it book by book.

JKR was probably able to act quickly because of the small number of titles, or maybe JKR has more on the ball, or maybe JKR is less greedy. It is just too soon to know yet.

I did not mean to jump all over the publishers. I started out trying to answer the question "says who": the government. Since the government reduced the vat, and said why, they are the ones who "says who".

I'm willing to wait a while to see whether the publishers follow the intent of the VAT reduction.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by John F

I did not mean to jump all over the publishers. I started out trying to answer the question "says who": the government. Since the government reduced the vat, and said why, they are the ones who "says who".

I'm willing to wait a while to see whether the publishers follow the intent of the VAT reduction.

Fair enough.
But don't hold your breath; cyanosis isn't fun.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

And when done in times of natural disasters, consumers see it as price gouging.

That's because it is price gouging. There's a lot of that going on these days and the publishers are doing it as well in the UK.

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by theducks

For a USA retailer, this can be a nightmare.
Unlike the Simple: Food, Labor and all else.
there are specific exceptions or conditions.

If you think sales tax a nightmare for a retailer, think of your itinerant tarot reader & astrologer.

Depending upon the specific legal jurisdiction, prevailing licensing authorities, and prevailing local tax authorities, a tarot reading or astrological report can be:
* illegal;
* legal, but a license is required;
* legal, no license required;
* sales tax must be collected for all readings;
* sales tax is collected only when the client receives something physical;
* sales tax is collected only for one part of the reading;
* no sales tax is charged;

I had an extremely interesting chat with an individual in a state department of taxation, whose basic advice was "Be paid in cash, don't give receipts, don't allow audio, or video recordings, nor allow the client to write anything down. Do pay the IRS."
Since I was only going to be in that state for a couple of weeks, that was the simplest solution. Were I a resident of that state, then I'd need both a local lawyer, and a local tax accountant, because:
* Providing a physical report was one tax rate;
* Providing a digital report was a second tax rate;
* Telling the client the report, was a third tax rate;
* Different physical locations had different licensing rules;
* The law on astrology and tarot readings varied by physical location;

As a former Internet merchant, I applaud the European (and Canada) SIMPLE VAT method as opposed to the hodge-podge USA sales tax chaos.

Trying to figure out if the services you offer are subject to VAT, is as complex as trying to figure out what sales tax to charge, with the hodge-podge that is sales tax in the United States.

I think it was Revenue Australia that told me to call them back, when I had over a half a million dollars in revenue from their country. (A figure that is substantially higher than their law stated was the minimum required to register and collect taxes on goods and services delivered to the country.)

[fjtorres]

Here's THE BOOKSELLER:

https://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/...-story-1201919

Publishers tend to sell books to Amazon in one of two different ways, using a wholesale or agency model. With the wholesale model, the publisher sets a wholesale price for the e-book – usually an amount that, once VAT is added, results in a .99 RRP – and then sells to Amazon at that price minus any agreed discount. Now that VAT has been scrapped, those 99p prices have dropped by 20%, and that seems to have happened pretty much straight away.

The other prevalent model is the agency model, where publishers set an RRP – again, nearly always a 99p price point – and the retailer sells at that price and deducts a commission. Here the publisher has determined the selling price, in much the same way as they do with RRPs on printed books. Looking through those Kindle charts, I suspect many of the books that have not changed prices are sold on this model.

My take when I first heard about the VAT cut being brought forward was not that Amazon would make a mint, instead I saw it as an opportunity for publishers. Right now, publishers across the UK are deciding what to do with their e-book pricing. Should they reflect the VAT cut so that all e-books are now 20% cheaper than they were? Or do they carry on with a pricing policy that keeps those 99p price points?

If they go with the former, then readers get a 20% saving, which was Rishi Sunak's intention. If they go with the latter, they increase e-book revenue by 20% and authors will see their royalties go up.

More at the source.

[j.p.s]

News UK (publisher of The Times) has said they will use it to delay future price hikes.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

News UK (publisher of The Times) has said they will use it to delay future price hikes.

Makes sense. Delaying future price hikes by -XXX days. Practically doing them now.

[DNSB]

As a former Internet merchant, I applaud the European (and Canada) SIMPLE VAT method as opposed to the hodge-podge USA sales tax chaos.

Hmmm... Why, yes the system in Canada is simple. There are only 13 regions you need to worry about. Of course, Alberta and the three territories don't have provincial/territorial sales taxes so the 5% GST is the only tax, then you have the 4 provinces where GST and PST are applied separately and the 5 provinces with a HST where they blended the GST and PST into a single tax—sadly, the PST amount is not the same for all 5. A bit tidier than the 4 GST/PST provinces, each of which have slightly different rules about what the PST applies. Then we can get into the offbeat provincial and territorial sales taxes (liquor, hotel rooms, etc., etc. ad nauseum).

Compared to the American federal, state, county, city and ghod alone what else, it is simpler. Simple though is not a word I would use for pretty much any taxation system.

BTW, when the old Federal Sales Tax was unhidden and became the GST, it was proudly proclaimed that prices would drop 5%. Oddly, that was rarely seen in the wild other for a short while for some large ticket items. So colour me unshocked that removing the 20% VAT did not result in immediate price reductions.