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

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Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#41

Post by arghwhat »

kasperni wrote: post #19
Svip wrote: post #2

The way this article is worded makes it sound like Denmark has a 'book tax'. Denmark has a VAT on goods (and services), which is 25%. But Denmark doesn't have split VAT values, so it's either 25% or nothing; no in-between. So they are just proposing removing the VAT from books. (Some goods and services are already exempt from VAT.) And if you wonder why Denmark doesn't simply lower their VAT or introduce a split VAT…

> the answer is technical inertia (or technical debt, if you will) One of the issues. There are number of others. For example, VAT is a value-based tax. A VAT cut gives the biggest savings to people who spend the most. Since wealthier people typically spend more, they would save more money in absolute terms. For example, a family with a food budget of 3,000 kr. would save 300 kr., while a family with a food budget of…

I find this logic extremely flawed. If you save half, you save half. If someone saves a lot more than you as a result, it mains they paid a lot more before, and is still paying a lot more than you now. As fair as it gets. Those that complain are usually imagining a robin-hood esque system where the tax progresses towards 100% as income goes up.

Trying to heavily tax billionaires is one thing, but the issue with them is tax avoidance by virtue of these complicated systems, and a lot of the incremental taxes land on people just plain working their ass off, getting no sleep, high stress and high blood pressure as a result. If someone has more because they worked more, they're entitled to exactly that.

Incremental tax also means that if you have a good year and a bad year you pay way more tax than if you just had two average years. Not to mention that such complicated tax is what enables tax optimization whereby those higher up can end up paying less tax. It's stupid.

Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#42

Post by hdgvhicv »

incangold wrote: post #32
kasperni wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the answer is technical inertia (or technical debt, if you will) One of the issues. There are number of others. For example, VAT is a value-based tax. A VAT cut gives the biggest savings to people who spend the most. Since wealthier people typically spend more, they would save more money in absolute terms. For example, a family with a food budget of 3,000 kr. would save 300 kr., while a family with a food budget of…

VAT can be considered a regressive tax because the poorer I am, the more of my money I spend on goods and services, and the less on savings and investments. As a proportion of income, poor people spend more on VAT than rich people. I think it’s about double, in the UK. So you’re right that cutting VAT helps richer people more in absolute terms. But in terms of of quality of life it helps poorer people more. [edit] as…

Give people as a whole more money and they can spend it on housing. Given the decades long supply problem with housing it simply means rents increase to fill the void.

Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#43

Post by hdgvhicv »

Rnonymous wrote: post #34
kasperni wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the answer is technical inertia (or technical debt, if you will) One of the issues. There are number of others. For example, VAT is a value-based tax. A VAT cut gives the biggest savings to people who spend the most. Since wealthier people typically spend more, they would save more money in absolute terms. For example, a family with a food budget of 3,000 kr. would save 300 kr., while a family with a food budget of…

I was under the impression that VAT taxes are considered to impact mostly the poor. While in absolute terms the rich are impacted most, in percentage terms VAT is considered a much smaller portion of expenses for the rich than the poor. I quote: "VAT is a regressive tax, putting more burden to the poor than to the rich. Indeed, VAT applies the same rate to everyone regardless of their level of wealth – but the richer…

In the U.K. most living expenses are don’t get charged vat, or get charged at a low rate - food, rent, public transport are vat free, electric, gas are low rated.

Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#44

Post by z3t4 »

Svip wrote: post #2

The way this article is worded makes it sound like Denmark has a 'book tax'. Denmark has a VAT on goods (and services), which is 25%. But Denmark doesn't have split VAT values, so it's either 25% or nothing; no in-between. So they are just proposing removing the VAT from books. (Some goods and services are already exempt from VAT.) And if you wonder why Denmark doesn't simply lower their VAT or introduce a split VAT…

The cheif/over-engineerer will account for variable tax rates in the future, especially if they plan to sell their erp system in other countries.

Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#45

Post by demaga »

quanto wrote: post #26

> The latest education report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) raised alarm in Denmark when it found 24% of Danish 15-year-olds cannot understand a simple text, up four percentage points in a decade. So, in 2015, 20% of 15-yo could not understand a simple text. Isn't that unbelievably high?

I couldn't find anything about this 24% figure.

There was a PISA report from 2022 though, that showed 19% of Danish 15-year-olds are below 'Level 2 reading'. But this bar is considerably higher than 'understand a simple text'.

> Some 81% of students in Denmark attained Level 2 or higher in reading (OECD average: 74%). At a minimum, these students can identify the main idea in a text of moderate length, find information based on explicit, though sometimes complex criteria, and can reflect on the purpose and form of texts when explicitly directed to do so. The share of 15-year-old students who attained minimum levels of proficiency in reading (Level 2 or higher) varied from 89% in Singapore to 8% in Cambodia.

So yeah, I doubt that claim. Journalism at its best, as always

Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#46

Post by dsign »

quanto wrote: post #26

> The latest education report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) raised alarm in Denmark when it found 24% of Danish 15-year-olds cannot understand a simple text, up four percentage points in a decade. So, in 2015, 20% of 15-yo could not understand a simple text. Isn't that unbelievably high?

How does this compare with state-of-the-art LLMs? Does this mean that the bottom 20% of 15 years old in Denmark, which has free education[^1] are only good for playing Call of Duty and taking plumber jobs? What does that mean for the future?

[^1]: At least for citizens.

Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#48

Post by Ekaros »

PeterStuer wrote: post #47

Does this mean EU citizens can order books from DK at 0% VAT? (6% in Belgium)

Well, to certain threshold by the seller. I think it is something like 10k. So when you go beyond that you are automatically responsible to pay VAT to buyers tax authority.

Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#49

Post by kgwgk »

kqr wrote: post #27
kasperni wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the answer is technical inertia (or technical debt, if you will) One of the issues. There are number of others. For example, VAT is a value-based tax. A VAT cut gives the biggest savings to people who spend the most. Since wealthier people typically spend more, they would save more money in absolute terms. For example, a family with a food budget of 3,000 kr. would save 300 kr., while a family with a food budget of…

Hmm. You say "tax break" but I could argue split VAT results in the opposite: a hike in consumption tax. The base VAT rate can be set higher if the VAT on desirable consumption is lower. I.e. it's not that rich people pay less tax for books -- it's that rich people pay more tax for non-books!

Denmark already has one of the largest VAT rates in the EU (25%) - only surpassed by Finland (25.5%) and Hungary (27%). (I guess you may also argue that those two countries have reduced rates and that proves your point!)

Re: 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

#50

Post by tossandthrow »

Ekaros wrote: post #31
bruce511 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VAT is not a compile-time value. It's a runtime value. Nevermind not scattering it in your code, it shouldn't be in your code at all.

VAT rate can and does change. As such it can be different on different dates. And this change might not even correspond to change of year. So it really has no place in code.

The US is used to this as the rate changes between states and product categories - it is not reasonable to adopt this view onto other VAT systems.

You can not transfer categorical statements like you do.

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