Residents of the United Kingdom will see an increase in tax for apps, eBooks and audiobooks in 2015. Amazon, Apple, B&N and Kobo will be forced to charge 20% VAT, which will drastically increase the overall cost.
Major eBook retailers currently charges less tax for customers in the UK because they are based in Luxembourg, where the VAT is on average 3%. The UK government is currently making changes to the tax code for online purchases, based on the originating country where the content is being bought from. This will close a fairly lucrative tax loophole that have saved Amazon, Apple, B&N and Google millions of dollars.
The era of 99p music and app downloads will be coming to an end in 2015. Voracious readers will be spending more money, on average, for their audiobooks, eBooks, newspapers and magazines.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events such as IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send Michael Kozlowski an email to [email protected]