Denmark scraps book tax to combat “reading crisis”

The Danish government has announced it will abolish a 25% sales tax on books, in an effort to combat a “reading crisis”.

The tax is is one of the highest in the world. Culture Minister Jacob Engel-Schmidt says he hopes scrapping it will lead to more books flying off the shelves.

The measure is expected to cost about 330 million kroner ($50m, £38m) a year.

Data from the OECD, an intergovernmental think tank, shows that a quarter of Danish 15-year-olds cannot understand a simple text.

“The reading crisis has unfortunately been spreading in recent years,” said Engel-Schmidt. He added that he was “incredibly proud” of the move to scrap the tax.

He said “massive money should be spent on investing in the consumption and culture” of the Danish people.

In Finland, Sweden and Norway – which also have a standard Value Added Tax (VAT) of 25% like Denmark – the VAT on books is 14%, 6% and 0% respectively. In the UK, books are also VAT-free.

Surveys have shown declining levels of reading and comprehension among Danish teenagers, said Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, vice-chair of the government’s working group on literature.

Younger children can easily improve their reading skills “but at 15 the ability to understand a text is pretty important”, he told the BBC.

The numbers were “pretty shocking,” he said, referring to the OECD research.

Young people struggle with reading because they have “so many options” and can be “easily distracted”.

He said removing VAT on books was not a complete solution, but it would make books “more accessible”.

The government’s working group on literature also looked into ways to export Danish literature, the digitalisation of the book market and the impact on authors’ pay.