In a move to encourage more people to read, Denmark is moving forward to abolish VAT on books, according to the country’s Minister for Culture.
As it stands, Denmark’s tax of 25% on books is the highest in the world, and plays a huge factor into why people in the country are not reading books, being labelled as a “reading crisis”.
Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Denmark’s Minister for Culture, announced on Wednesday 20th August, that the country’s government would propose that the tax on books be abolished as part of its budget bill. A move expected to cost 330m kroner a year.
Speaking to Ritzau, Engel-Schmidt explained, “This is something that I, as minister of culture, have worked for, because I believe that we must put everything at stake if we are to end the reading crisis that has unfortunately been spreading in recent years.”
“I am incredibly proud. It is not every day that one succeeds in convincing colleagues that such massive money should be spent on investing in the consumption and culture of the Danes,” said Engel-Schmidt.