Sun, 24 Aug 2025 19:19:30 +1000
Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm48mvl33ro
'The Danish government has announced it will abolish a 25% sales tax on books,
in an effort to combat a "reading crisis".
The tax is is one of the highest in the world. Culture Minister Jacob
Engel-Schmidt says he hopes scrapping it will lead to more books flying off the
shelves.
The measure is expected to cost about 330 million kroner ($50m, £38m) a year.
Data from the OECD, an intergovernmental think tank, shows that a quarter of
Danish 15-year-olds cannot understand a simple text.
"The reading crisis has unfortunately been spreading in recent years," said
Engel-Schmidt. He added that he was "incredibly proud" of the move to scrap the
tax.
He said "massive money should be spent on investing in the consumption and
culture" of the Danish people.
In Finland, Sweden and Norway - which also have a standard Value Added Tax
(VAT) of 25% like Denmark - the VAT on books is 14%, 6% and 0% respectively. In
the UK, books are also VAT-free.
Surveys have shown declining levels of reading and comprehension among Danish
teenagers, said Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, vice-chair of the government's working
group on literature.
Younger children can easily improve their reading skills "but at 15 the ability
to understand a text is pretty important", he told the BBC.
The numbers were "pretty shocking," he said, referring to the OECD research.
Young people struggle with reading because they have "so many options" and can
be "easily distracted".
He said removing VAT on books was not a complete solution, but it would make
books "more accessible".
The government's working group on literature also looked into ways to export
Danish literature, the digitalisation of the book market and the impact on
authors' pay.'
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
'The Danish government has announced it will abolish a 25% sales tax on books,
in an effort to combat a "reading crisis".
The tax is is one of the highest in the world. Culture Minister Jacob
Engel-Schmidt says he hopes scrapping it will lead to more books flying off the
shelves.
The measure is expected to cost about 330 million kroner ($50m, £38m) a year.
Data from the OECD, an intergovernmental think tank, shows that a quarter of
Danish 15-year-olds cannot understand a simple text.
"The reading crisis has unfortunately been spreading in recent years," said
Engel-Schmidt. He added that he was "incredibly proud" of the move to scrap the
tax.
He said "massive money should be spent on investing in the consumption and
culture" of the Danish people.
In Finland, Sweden and Norway - which also have a standard Value Added Tax
(VAT) of 25% like Denmark - the VAT on books is 14%, 6% and 0% respectively. In
the UK, books are also VAT-free.
Surveys have shown declining levels of reading and comprehension among Danish
teenagers, said Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, vice-chair of the government's working
group on literature.
Younger children can easily improve their reading skills "but at 15 the ability
to understand a text is pretty important", he told the BBC.
The numbers were "pretty shocking," he said, referring to the OECD research.
Young people struggle with reading because they have "so many options" and can
be "easily distracted".
He said removing VAT on books was not a complete solution, but it would make
books "more accessible".
The government's working group on literature also looked into ways to export
Danish literature, the digitalisation of the book market and the impact on
authors' pay.'
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
