By Edward Nawotka In the latest issue of ESPRIT magazine, Pascal Fouche, bibliographer and editor of the three-volume Dictionnaire encyclopedique du livre, discusses the changing definition of the book in the age of digitization, largely in favor of the argument that a lower rate of V.A.T. — 5.5.% in France — not be extended to e-books: “A book is an …
Is the EU’s 18% Tax on Spanish E-books Fair?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story discusses the launch of Libranda, Spain’s new e-book distribution platform. Along with the announcement is the news that e-books will be charged at the same tax rate as computer software — 18% — instead of the lower 4% rate that is typically applied by “cultural products,” such as books. The Spanish government wants to …
Introducing Libranda: Spain’s Big Three Finalize Their Push into Ebooks
By Emily Williams The long-awaited e-book platform from Spain’s big three publishers now has a name. At a meeting with booksellers in Madrid on Tuesday, representatives of the new company announced it will be called Libranda, and will offer the biggest selection of e-books in Spanish and Catalán in the world. Libranda will act as a digital distributor with no …
Switzerland Debates Details of Reinstated Fixed Price Laws
By Siobhan O’Leary Switzerland’s Council of States will be meeting on March 2nd to discuss the upcoming reinstatement of the country’s fixed book price law. According to buchreport, the law could be adopted as early as March 19th and the Schweizer Buchhändler- und Verlegerverband (SBVV – Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association) sees only a couple of drawbacks in the draft …
Spain Lowers Tax on E-books, Opens Digital Library
By Emily Williams A very important — and positive — development for the incipient Spanish e-book market took place this week. On Tuesday the Spanish Minister of Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, announced that the government would set the value added tax for e-books at 4%, the same as for paper books. E-books had previously been in the same category as software, …
German Buch News: Germans Buying More English-language Books; Reduced VAT for Books Challenged
By Siobhan O’Leary Berlin Verlag, and its British parent company Bloomsbury, have distributed Bloomsbury’s English-language titles in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since 2005. The books are distributed via Berlin Verlag’s distributor Prolit. This week, Prolit will also begin distributing the popular science titles of Bloomsbury’s subsidiary A&C Black. As reported in Buchreport, part of the reason for this expansion is the news that …