Denmark eliminates book tax to spur reading

Denmark has decided to scrap its tax on books in a bid to increase literacy levels, which have plunged to worrying lows recently.

The country's government said this week its 25 percent tax on book sales must go if the nation is to battle back against its "reading crisis".

The idea was suggested by the government's working group on literature, the publishing industry and stakeholder groups.

Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said as he announced the government's decision to ditch the tax, which is one of the most prohibitive in the world and the highest rate in Europe, that he hoped it would lead to many more books being sold, and a new love of reading.

But he acknowledged the move will cost the country around 330 million Danish kroner ($51 million) a year in lost tax revenue.

"We need to do all we can to fix this reading crisis that has unfortunately spread in recent years," Engel-Schmidt told the Ritzau news agency.

He added that he would like to see "massive money" now being spent on improving the culture of the Danish people.

Engel-Schmidt made the move after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development intergovernmental think tank said in its latest annual education review that a quarter of Denmark's 15-year-olds were unable to understand simple texts, which was up 4 percentage points on the figure from a decade ago.

Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, a professor of comparative literature at Aarhus University and vice-chair of the Danish government's working group on literature, said surveys have repeatedly shown there are declining levels of literacy among Denmark's teenagers, and that the 25 percent tax on books was partly responsible.

Nearby Finland, Sweden and Norway have lower tax rates on books, with Finland taxing them at 14 percent, Sweden at 6 percent, and Norway at zero percent. The United Kingdom also has a zero percent tax on books.

Thomsen told the BBC that young children can quickly improve their reading skills once books become more readily available, but he said the situation was much more urgent and important among 15-year-olds.

Thomsen added that other factors have also contributed to the literacy crisis, including the increasing challenge of distractions like online gaming.