🆒🖖

That is refreshing. How many books are about the corruption of the American GOP, the factual accounts of slavery in America and book banning in America?

We burn books instead

The laboratory of Democracy isn't in the USA anymore.

Interesting... In America they burn & ban books What a strange concept Reading books

About bloody time!! Was a dumb idea in the first place!

Is this really what's keeping people from reading?? How much is tax there?

No and quite a lot.

25% from this article with Le Monde:

To be fair, that's the standard VAT in Denmark. You pay that on everything. Now they are just making books exempt from standard "sales tax."

Sure, it's pretty high, and maybe this is my American ignorance, but don't Danes have public libraries? I'm other words, even if you're too poor to afford books, couldn't you read if you really wanted to?

They have excellent libraries. They're well funded and easy to use.

Still...

I complain a lot about Danish taxes, but you did get tremendous value for them. Public transit is stellar, food quality is very high, universal health care is quite good, schools are very good and incredibly safe. You just have to get over your American sensibilities to live there.

Oh i'm not a bloody American.... my "still..." comment was more still every little bit helps people these days

Haha, I'm the bloody American in this case. Sorry for assuming.

Lol all good... with the apology, u sure you aren't Canadian? Lol

👏🏾

What will kill books is the tons of AI slop that is pushed every day.

How dare they, that's un American!!!...

Finally something progressive to read.

Og i #Norge vil FrP øke bokprisene med 25% .. 🤔🤐

Will the bookstores cut their price though, or pocket the margin

This is a good idea for Canadians as well.

Gee imagine a government who WANTS people to read more… be educated and more aware of others!

Most European countries have been doing this for years!

There are do many crappy books!! They should target only some books that are worthy to read

Who the heck even tax books? It's was a dumb law in the first place.

Good for them. Just the opposite of Trump and the Republicans!

Imagine...a country that instead of banning books and destroying its own educational system, encourages its populace to read, thereby ensuring that its people are well equipped to be productive members of the world.

Be like Denmark …

Most European countries have done this for years

GIVE YOUR ALGORITHM A NAME. DALE UN NOMBRE A TU ALGORITMO. 알고리즘에 이름을 지정하세요. 為你嘅算法命名. أعطِ خوارزميتك اسمًا. DA NOMEN ALGORITHMO TUO. তোমার অ্যালগরিদমের একটি নাম দাও. DAJTE IME SVOM ALGORITMU. Hawi I KOU ALGORITHM HE INOA. DÊ UM NOME AO SEU ALGORITMO.

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And I bet they don’t ban books there either I am just so sick of the USA government and their policies

Welcome to America! Where the only books we don’t tax are the ones we’ve banned!

social media has lowerd human attention spans too much already.

bsky.app/profile/abdo...

bsky.app/profile/abdo...

Great idea.

Ending #book #taxes sounds a great idea! 📚 #Culture

📖♥️

Such progressive people!

What a nice, albeit brief, breath of fresh air, in the midst of insanity happening all over this country.

And help book biz and authors

While it is true that a lot of free books are collecting dust in libraries… Experience from Sweden shows that reduced VAT on books does not promote writing or increase book sales.

Citation

🫶💯

Uuuhh, this sounds dangerous. I already have a tendency to buy too many books. My backlog is ridiculous.

a country doing something good for it's population instead of beating them up and shoving money in potato chip bags for bribes? #Whataconcept! #"DenmarkRocks!"

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” ― Charles W. Eliot

Just don't send books by post in Denmark. Since they abolished the regular postal service the cost of a stamp is more than a regular book.

To Mari. Re my post about Scandanavia. I know I'm preaching to the choir bur Denmark removing tax from book purchases really shines a bigger light on their philosophy of an informed, intelligent citizenry. Sadly, we're sinking into a miasma of ignorance.

Yea, so many people dont read because the tax on buying a book. This makes so much sense.

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@lardawgiv.bsky.social

WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!

Encouraging their people. Supporting their people. Educating their citizens. America? We burn books. Erase history. Oppress our citizens. No wonder they’re one of the most happy countries in the world. And we aren’t.

Read and preserve the values of literature.

Wish Denmark would let us in…Danish heritage??? Pretty please.

I remember when my country had a functioning government that cares. But nnnooooooooo, now we burn books like it’s 1938.

I’ll be there next week!! I don’t think this will be in effect on time…

Just came back from a 5 day scout camp. Never once heard the phrase "I'm bored!" From the kids who brought books. I did notice that girls were more likely to read, though.

What a great idea

There's no PST on books in Canada. Damned socialists.

You don't get more people to read books by removing VAT on books, the motive for removing VAT on books doesn't hold up. Sweden reduced their VAT on books, it turns out that it doesn't create new readers, those who already read books just buy more.

Should be done everywhere.

okay, but that's not enough to lower the price, they should do more, especially on the academic books.

give the price of all books a max limit, and promote employee-owned business as the business model for publishers and salers, stronger copyright protection especially to combat AI. or it's just find excuses to cut taxes.

this is nice news. Thank you.

Keep it revenue neutral: end the tax on all books except raise it to 12,000% on all books by JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith and by Ayn Rand lol

Denmark is with a good idea 🇩🇰 🇩🇰 👍 👊 🇩🇰 🇩🇰 Us Danes have good ideas now and again

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

So smart!

Book tax? 😵‍💫😵🤯

Bravo!

America taxes, books, and mans them also

I can’t afford most books I read, fortunately, I am walking distance from my local library. That’s another thing the Danes could try.

If Loomer or some other bat shit crazy MAGAt reads this, they'll be bending Rump's ear to start a special tax on books.

THIS IS WHAT A GOOD COUNTRY DOES.

Now we should just make the rest of the world follow suit. Easy

Great example of a country that takes care of its people. Unlike the United States.

Books now cost a small fortune—publishers, in their refined cruelty, price wisdom like luxury. I once bought six a month; now I flinch at three. Greed thrives where thought once mattered.

Um, a major problem is that the majority of parents 🤔 do not take the time to read books to their children 🤔 anymore.

Oh no. The Americans are going to see this and do the opposite.

A tax on books with a special exemption for books ghost written for current and former talking heads from FAUX NEWS.

Ha! Truly. They’d exempt some specific publishers.

Sorry wrong thread. VOTE.

Wonderful!

Book tax? Luddites.

Perhaps read before making judgements. It's just that their standard sales tax will no longer apply to books.

Clearly an act socialism: encouraging citizens to read. Next they’ll force them to have free healthcare. Unthinkable. UnAmerikan.

Given that the VAT in Denmark is 25%, this could have an impact.

Meanwhile in Oklahoma

You don't have to live in Oklahoma to sign. Just reached 33K!! chng.it/fMqWL4GCx8

Signed

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Just did!! chng.it/wmdwWdvtcd

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Done!

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Asswipe!

I cannot believe this pervert has a job overseeing children. GOP stands for Guarding Outright Pedophiles

I can't believe the people of Oklahoma allow him to continue GOP-ing!

Looks can be deceiving but walters looks like a pedophile. So of course he supports his fellow Pedo, Trump.

This fuckwit is a colossal piece of shit!!!

That’s so cool! In the United States we ban books.

The Trump regime is removing all sorts of reading opportunities for kids. Denmark is good for kids. The US is not.

Very well done!

Wow this is an excellent idea🥰

This is what most of us want from our governments - practical steps to boost social wellbeing, empathy and cohesion! Not to mention, no sensible country should charge VAT on books, because stories add IMMEASURABLE value to people's lives 😀 #bookaholic #bookish #booklover #bookwormwrites #booknerd

Except the USA to cut diplomatic ties because of Denmark's 'WOKE' policies.

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Why was there a book tax in the first place?

Denmark is such a sensible country. Wish we lived in one.

Hmm. They didn’t go the route of banning and burning books like the US? No wonder why they are the 2nd happiest country on earth while the US barely hit the top 20.

America- Are you listening?

So what you're saying is that slapping a 25% sales tax on books is something that a government can do.... (This is what happens if the current American administration listens to this)

Denmark pays a flat 25% vat on everything, but it is also part of the overall social Security we have here. What I do fear is that the book stores will pocket some of the vat removal. They will most likely only lower the price by 18% or so.

Always a step ahead of the rest of the world. 🇨🇦🇩🇰

This is civilization.

Dane here…to be precise the proposal is to abolish the standard VAT of 25% from book sales. Several countries in Europe has had no, or very low VAT on sold books for years. A very welcome initiative but hardly progressive in a European context. Also I think Denmark should lower VAT on basic food..

Yes even the not-so-progressive UK has had zero VAT on books for decades.

Unless you're gonna write on it...a really weird law that means puzzle books and such are charged VAT.

Hey what would VAT be without weird exceptions. 😂

Just as well, given that the Net Book Agreement was abolished some years' ago, which means authors have to sell an awful lot of copies to make it worth publishers while publishing them. So the commercial over the literary wins every time, unless you already have a name.

Norway has 0% Vat on books so they are damn cheap!

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Well duhhhhh

Now we're talking (reading).

👍👏👏

Meanwhile in Norway, the conservative party has just suggested raising book prices by 25% by reinstating the tax... www.nrk.no/buskerud/hoy...

Bravo, Denmark.

Sadly, in the age of AI slop we've got an uphill battle in encouraging people to read when they're getting Chat GPT to summarize books so they don't have to read them!🫠

Great news!

What a novel idea!

Way to do it, best incentivise to encourage, same with dietary and health

Think this way, healthy diet and activity less spent on health care services. Reading improves imagination, better understanding adaptation in education

No banning books here❌👑💙

Which of course begs the question of why there was a special tax on books in the first place

Uk already has no book tax.

It also dropped VAT on ebooks in 2020, however most publishers just charged the same and kept it for themselves ...

2nd hand books are often cheaper than the postage cost on ebay. The price isn't why people aren't reading

Nice

Meanwhile, over in a sane world.. Refreshing to read about policies, even simple small ones, made for improvement.

That's fantastic. No idea there even was a book tax. Take a look in my bookstore to find something to read. Lots of great choices! bookshop.org/shop/MikeRem...

Denmark doing everything right. Again.

In the UK we have a tax on books in electronic books but none on printed books. Encouraging the denuding of forestation and a complete absurdity.

They don’t cut down wild forests to make paper.

He didn't specifically say they did? However, see this: wwf.panda.org/discover/our... "What could happen if the majority of the sector continues "business as usual"? Increasing demand for pulp, paper, and packaging spurs demand for virgin fibers..

..and will increase the need to harvest trees and to establish new plantations. If forests and plantations are not managed sustainably, this will put higher pressure on natural forests.

Conversion of natural ecosystem and land for tree plantations, with the production of pulp, paper and packaging being a main driver of deforestation in several deforestation fronts." Also see: finanssenteret.as/en/the-envir... 8billiontrees.com/trees/how-ma...

this is something Trump couldn't even conceive of!

Whilst US is ending books to encourage more people to be dumb

Who thought taxing books was a great idea in the first place?

Republican right wingers in government in America will now come up with an extra high book tax to stop people from reading.

Smart move. They've seen the US illiteracy rate, I see.

In the US we Ban Books-

May I please emigrate to Denmark

Most Europe headline ever

Novel idea

Too bad the illiterates in this country won't do the same...

So...why had there been a 25% sales tax on books? No, the article does not explain.

In Denmark, as a general rule, 25% VAT is added to all goods and services sold in Denmark.

My grandparents were from Denmark. I read books, a lot of books. Can I be a Danish citizen??? Please

That few cents won't make a difference.

In America we’re fighting in federal court about if we can ban books. We are not the same

Encouraging reading instead of banning books? Novel concept.

Well done, Denmark.

books should never be taxed

The problem is that most Danes are illiterate.

When a country actually cares about its citizens.