France may tax publications protected by DRM at a higher rate

It&#x27;s a little more difficult. The proposed legislation is not accepted, and will probably not be: <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&amp;tl=en&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.april.org%2Fprix-du-livre-vers-une-tva-selon-la-presence-ou-non-de-drm&amp;act=url" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;translate.google.com&#x2F;translate?sl=fr&amp;tl=en&amp;u=http%3A%...</a>

This is the same in the Netherlands - VAT on ebooks is 21% (&quot;luxury goods&quot;), normal books are at the 6% rate (same as household goods, foods, etc). Then again, there are more strange classifications in any tax schedule - hamster food is taxed at 21%, rabbit food at 6% (rationale supposedly being rabbits are food too...) and fixing a moped is 21%, but a bike is 6%.

Yeah, thought that was a great idea and was happy that the law was voted... and two days after, Assembly voted an article cancelling this one, pushed by the government. A big lobbyism at work and a &quot;Europe won&#x27;t like it and will condemn us&quot; excuse. Our government has no balls.

Having DRM is not the cause of higher VAT, is being an electronic document what makes the VAT being the standard and not the reduced one.<p>And it is and European categorization, all the countries members of the EU must use that VAT

Right now in the UK, VAT is at 20% on ebooks as it is for any other standard rate item. Physical books and magazines are at 0%. Most people won&#x27;t be paying this though, as sites like Amazon sell from Luxembourg where VAT on eBooks is 3% (<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=502578" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.co.uk&#x2F;gp&#x2F;help&#x2F;customer&#x2F;display.html?nodeId...</a>). This can mean that providing a digital product (this recently came up with the Linux Voice IndieGoGo <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/linux-voice/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.indiegogo.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;linux-voice&#x2F;</a>) doesn&#x27;t knock off as much of the cost as you might expect.

Add to that the fact that Amazon is subsidizing Kindle device buyers, by asking all the other foreigners to pay an extra $2 for each e-book, making e-books much more expensive for the vast majority of Kindle ebook buyers:<p><a href="http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/amazon-hold-back-the-growth-of-e-books-around-the-world/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;davidgaughran.wordpress.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;07&#x2F;11&#x2F;amazon-hold-ba...</a>

What happens when one buys an electronic book from outside France ( <a href="http://bookscanner.us" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bookscanner.us</a> ) ? Who pays the tax and when?

And those taxes will get passed on to the customer, guaranteed.