France is preparing to reclassify sales of e-books from its reduced VAT rate of 5.5% to its standard rate of 20% from 1 January 2016.
The change comes following the European Court of Justice ruling on e-book VAT on 4 March 2015 which clarified that e-books were liable to the standard VAT rate in EU member states. This is on the basis that they are a service, and not listed in Appendix III of the EU VAT Directive as being entitled to enjoy the same reduced VAT rates as printed book.
The ruling applied to France and Luxembourg, which had both lowered their electronic book VAT rates in 2013. Italy and Malta had followed them at the start of 2015.
Since the ruling, Luxembourg announced it would raise e-book VAT to 17% from 1 May 2015.
