Well the budget came & went last week. The astute of you may have noticed that from 1st Jan, VAT on ebooks and audio books will be 0%. Which is pleasing no doubt to the Irish book publishing industry whose print products have always been zero rated for VAT. Newspapers were allocated a 0% VAT rate in the 2023 budget.
Where does that leave print maps and emaps in the Republic for that matter? Currently rated at 13.5% VAT. Maps are zero rated in the UK & NI and at very minimal or zero rates in all other EU states.
This egregious anomaly has been brought to the attention of the Dept of Finance both after and before previous budgets. Perhaps & hopefully the matter will be dealt with in the Finance Act and was too inconsequential to mention in the budget announcement. If it isn’t, that will point towards a deliberate state policy to disadvantage other map publishers to their own benefit.
#eastwestmapping #outdoorsireland
