News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books.

Re:'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books by rasz on Thursday August 21, 2025 @05:46AM (#44970837)
Variable/exempt VAT on certain goods often leads to funny exploitation. In Poland we got a ton of media (games, movies, pr0n) sold as magazines/books to get 8% instead of 22% VAT.

Here an example from CD Project (Witcher and Cyberpunk guys) https://gamerweb.pl/gry-z-serii-gamebook-w-sieci-sklepow-bie... Gamebook, a book bundled with "free" game :)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books by rsynnott on Thursday August 21, 2025 @08:31AM (#44971953)
This is supposedly why the Playstation 2 came with a BASIC interpreter in Europe; they were attempting to have it classified as a computer (no import duties) rather than a games console (duties, at the time). I _think_ part of the motivation for Linux on the PS3 may have been something similar.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books by lostmsu on Thursday August 21, 2025 @01:39PM (#44975721)
This is actually brilliant. If worded carefully, we could disincentivize closed gardens by adjusting VAT.
[ Parent | on HN ]