In Denmark, where bicycles outnumber cars and the welfare state is almost a national brand, a new policy seeks to revive an older habit: reading for pleasure. The government will soon exempt books from its 25% value-added tax, amongst the highest in Europe. The problem, officials say, is not the price of books but the fact that fewer people are reading them.
The proposed exemption, announced as part of the government’s forthcoming budget, is expected to cost 330mn kroner ($51mn) a year. Politicians claim the country’s healthy surplus will absorb it. Publishers and booksellers have greeted the move with enthusiasm. Readers, more difficult to corral than lobbyists, may prove harder to sway.
Ministers point to what they call a “reading crisis”. A 2021 international survey found a quarter of Danish fourth-graders were weak readers. Among adolescents, digital diversions have pushed the novel to the margins. Attention has fragmented. Vocabulary has narrowed. Critical thinking, policymakers worry, has become a specialist skill. The Culture Ministry claims the VAT cut will make books more affordable and therefore more attractive, particularly for young readers and low-income households.
Whether it will succeed depends on several assumptions. First, that price remains a big obstacle to book consumption. In Denmark a new hardback can cross 300 kroner, more than many monthly streaming subscriptions. Second, that a price cut of 16–20%, the range publishers promise to deliver, will tilt the equation back towards reading. And third, that access correlates with engagement. Most education researchers would endorse the first. The latter two are less certain.
Other Nordic governments have pursued similar policies. Sweden reduced VAT on books to 6% in 2002. Norway zero-rated physical books and offered generous subsidies to publishers. Finland allows reduced rates on both print and digital formats. Results have varied. The Swedish Booksellers Association claims lower taxes helped stabilise independent bookshops. Literacy rates, however, have shown no dramatic shifts.
Supporters in Denmark argue the VAT reform must be seen as one piece of a wider strategy. Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, a professor of comparative literature at Aarhus University who chaired the government’s task force on reading, notes tax relief should be accompanied by increased support for libraries and better training for educators, as well as incentives for community-based reading initiatives. Books, he argues, are public goods. Treating them accordingly may produce long-term benefits in social cohesion, civic literacy and mental well-being.
Publishers, more directly affected, view the exemption as a signal of official recognition. Christine Bodtcher-Hansen, director of Danske Forlag, says it affirms the book’s status as a cultural foundation. A bigger market could attract new authors and expand the catalogue of Danish titles. For booksellers the removal of VAT may provide a competitive reprieve against digital retailers, particularly if they pass on the savings.
Critics of the proposal, though muted, express concern over policy myopia. A tax cut is visible, immediate and politically saleable. Structural interventions—such as curriculum reform, targeted literacy programmes or regulation of screen time—are slower and messier. There is also the question of evaluation. The government says the measure will be reviewed after four years, with the risk of reversal if consumer prices do not fall. That may placate fiscal hawks but introduces uncertainty for publishers and retailers attempting to plan ahead.
The government has refrained from making grand claims. Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt has said only that removing VAT might “do something” to encourage reading. He points out physical and online books struggle to compete with subscription-based entertainment. The policy, then, seeks to level the playing field.
None of this guarantees that people will read more. Time, not cost, is the scarcest commodity in modern life. Screens are portable and curated and designed to reward distraction. Books require solitude and sustained attention, qualities tax policy alone cannot produce. The greatest threat to reading, as Danish officials concede, is not the bookstore till but the infinite scroll. ■
