The proposed new VAT rules on e-publications: do they have any implications for copyright and digital exhaustion?
Trying to understand newly proposed VAT rules Can VAT rules have any implications for ... copyright? Yesterday - as part of its Digital Single Market Strategy - the EU Commission unveiled proposals for new tax rules with the objective of supporting e-commerce and online businesses in the EU. Among the measures proposed, there is one that may be of interest also from a copyright perspective. New VAT rules for e-publications The Commission proposed in fact to apply the same VAT rate to e-publications, eg e-books and online newspapers, as for their printed equivalents, thus removing provisions that excluded e-publications from the favourable tax treatment allowed for traditional printed publications. As explained in the relevant proposal , a ccording to the VAT Directive electronically supplied services including electronically supplied publications have to be taxed at the standard VAT rate (minimum 15%). On the other hand, Me...