On November 4, 2016 the European Commission published the results of the public consultation on reduced VAT rates for electronically supplied publications which it launched on July 27, 2016 and for which the period to submit responses ended on September 19, 2016.

A Summary Report of Responses received on The Commission's consultation on reduced VAT rates for electronically supplied publications as drafted by the Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union can be found here.

This Summary Report summarizes the key finding of the report as follows:

“It is important to note that the responses do not differ significantly between the different groups of respondents. The key findings are:

1.     94% of the respondents agreed that Member States should be allowed to apply a reduced VAT rate to e-books.

2.     88% of the respondents agreed that Member States should be allowed to apply a reduced VAT rate to e-newspapers and e-periodicals, too.

3.     A plurality of respondents (45%) found that super-reduced and zero rates for printed publications should not be abolished. Out of these 45%, an overwhelming majority (90%) was in favour of allowing all Member States to apply super-reduced or zero VAT rates to printed publications and e-publications.”

Right after the key finding the following is however noted in the Summary Report:

“The results of this open public consultation are in no way representative, because participation was made on a voluntary basis and for specific groups of respondents the number of responses was simply too low. In addition, asking consumers and in particular readers about a potential tax cut by Member States, triggers positive answered towards a tax cut. However, the answers relating to existing super-reduced and zero rates show that respondents are well aware of a situation where tax cuts might go too far.”

Click here to be forwarded to a webpage from where one can download documents containing:

·   ALL RESPONSES TO THE CONSULTATION VIA EU SURVEY

·   RESPONSES TO THE CONSULTATION BY PUBLIC AUTHORITIES AND MEMBER STATES

·   RESPONSES TO THE CONSULTATION BY PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS

·   RESPONSES TO THE CONSULTATION BY ORGANISATIONS REGISTERED IN THE TRANSPARENCY REGISTER VIA EU SURVEY

·   RESPONSES TO THE CONSULTATION BY BUSINESSES AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS VIA EU SURVEY

·   ADDITIONAL RESPONSES AND DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED DURING THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION BY ORGANISATIONS, BUSINESSES AND PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS

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