Author Val Mcdermid welcomes decision to kill off VAT on ebooks

Fife-born crime writer Val Mcdermid has welcomed Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision to kill off VAT on ebooks.

From December 1, the 20% VAT on all e-publications, including books, magazines and newspapers will be scrapped.

Ms Mcdermid was one of a number of high-profile authors who had backed the Axe the Reading Tax campaign.

She said she was “absolutely delighted” at the decision to scrap the tax.

Ms Mcdermid said: “It was an illogical tax; a tax on what form you read something rather than on content. Anything that makes it easier to access books is a good thing.

“It was a tax that particularly hit poorer people and people with young children because so many kids read on screens or on tablets.”

Announcing the move during his

“It was an illogical tax. VAL MCDERMID

Budget speech, Mr Sunak said: “A world class education will help the next generation thrive and nothing could be more fundamental to that than reading. And yet digital publications are subject to VAT. That can’t be right.

“From December 1, just in time for Christmas, books, newspapers, magazines or academic journals, however they are read will have no VAT charge whatsoever.”

Books and newspapers have been exempt from VAT since the introduction of the tax in 1973.

In 2018, the European Union passed legislation that allowed its member states to remove or to apply lower VAT to electronic publications.

France, Italy, Belgium and Iceland were among those who agreed they would lower taxes, but the UK did not follow suit, with readers continuing to pay 20% VAT on digital publications.

The official Axe The Reading Tax Twitter account posted: “We are thrilled.”