The battle on eBook continues and now sees a troop of four countries taking sides against Brussels. In a joint document addressed to the European Commission, Italy, France, Germany e Poland they asked to be allowed to apply the reduced VAT rates to all books, including digital ones.
In the joint note, published today in Paris, the culture ministers of the four countries ask the EU executive "to propose without delay an evolution of European legislation in order to allow the application of reduced VAT taxation for all books , paper or digital”.
As recently as two weeks ago, one judgment of the European Court of Justice established that France e Luxembourg cannot apply the reduced VAT rate to the supply of electronic books, contrary to what is valid for paper books. The judges accepted the appeals with which the European Commission had asked to declare the two countries in default because, by cutting VAT on eBooks, they failed to fulfill the obligations of the EU directive which excludes any possibility of applying a reduced VAT rate to "services provided electronically".
Since January 2015, XNUMX also in Italy the VAT on eBooks has dropped from 22% to 4%, on the basis of the stability law, within which a specific amendment supported by the government was accepted and approved. A "battle of civilization and common sense", as defined by the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Dario Franceschini. But at this point, if the appeal launched today by the four ministers remains unheeded, the EU infringement procedure will also be a consequence that is difficult to avoid for our country.
