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Romania cuts book VAT rate from 9% to 5% January 2016

  • Apr 25, 2015 | Richard Asquith

Romania cuts book VAT rate from 9% to 5% January 2016

Romania has announced plans to cut its reduced VAT rate on printed books from 9% to 5% on1 January 2016. This will make it one of the lowest in Europe – the UK has a ‘nil’ VAT rate. The announcement was made on World Book Day.

The country is emerging from the worst of the effects of the 2007/8 financial crisis. The forced Romania to raise its VAT rate from 19% to 24% in July 2010. It has announced a Romanian VAT cut to 20% in January 2016. Although it members of the Troika, IMF, ECB and EC, have questioned is the country’s finances are strong enough for this. They have also said that Romania should concentrate on lowering taxes on employers and companies to help stimulate growth. In addition, Romania will cut VAT on food to 9% in July 2015.

The move was made while the EU continues to debate differences on VAT rates between e-books and printed books. The ECJ rules e-books are subject to the standard VAT rates and not reduced rates in a case last month against France and Luxembourg.

 


VP Global Indirect Tax
Richard Asquith
VP Global Indirect Tax Richard Asquith
Richard Asquith is the former VP Global Indirect Tax at Avalara