Brazil exempts e-books from tax

Brazil’s Federal Court has exempted electronic books from tax.  This aligns to the tax treatment of paper books, magazines and newspapers.  The court held that digital books were indistinguishable from printed books.  The ruling relates to a number of federal, state (ICMS) and city taxes, and no implementation date has been set.

This compares to recent rulings by the EU Court of Justice which has held there is a difference in the physical delivery and that e-books are not included in Annex III of the EU Directive which specifies which goods and services are entitled to benefit the reduced VAT.

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