Remuneration for publication rights taxed at the general VAT rate

 

• Reduced VAT rate not applicable: The District Court of Gelderland ruled that remuneration for publication rights does not qualify for the reduced VAT rate, following the shift by publishers to an open‑access business model.
• Distinct supplies identified: The Court confirmed that reading rights and publication rights are separate supplies; publication rights do not constitute the (digital) delivery of an article and are not subordinate to reading rights that may benefit from the reduced rate.
• Standard VAT rate applies without breach of principles: Applying the standard VAT rate to publication rights does not violate the VAT neutrality principle, legislative intent, or EU VAT Directive implementation; the taxpayer’s appeal was therefore unfounded.

Source Taxlive

 

---

Court Rules Open Access Publication Fees Not Eligible for Reduced VAT Rate in the Netherlands

• The court ruled that open access publication fees (publicatierechten) are not eligible for the reduced VAT rate, unlike reading rights (leesrechten).
• Publication rights are considered a separate service from reading rights, with different end users: authors vs. readers.
• The publication fee covers the process of publishing (review, editing, placement), not access to content.
• The reduced VAT rate applies only to access to publications, not to the act of publishing itself.
• This decision is significant for educational and research institutions, publishers, and license purchasers.

Source: nextens.nl

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

---

---