The European Court of Justice ruled this week that Luxembourg and France had acted illegally in applying a special low rate of VAT to e-books. The tax dodge by Luxembourg involved raking off tax using 3% VAT on e-books paid bought, paid for and sold elsewhere in the EU, especially the UK and Germany. With the sales channelled through Luxembourg this got them a small bonus amount of tax at the expense of consumers and other EU states. The ECJ has now ruled e-books are standard rated. The case is reported as EC Commission v Luxembourg [2015] EUECJ C-502/13, 05/Mar/15 and France C-479/13.
Eamon McNicholas
Tax Barrister, Accountant
http://www.EamonMcNicholas.com
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