Officials in Denmark, as in many other places, are worried about whether people are still turning to a good book in a world of screens and scrolling. They are hoping that a new proposal intended to make books cheaper will help. Books will soon be exempt from the 25% value-added tax, or VAT, that Denmark applies to most goods and services, the government said this week. “We would like people to read more,” Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Denmark’s culture minister, said in a phone interview Thursday. The proposed exemption, he said, was intended to combat what he called a growing “reading crisis” in the country, particularly among younger people. “Making books more accessible, lowering the prices in the bookstore, will definitely do something about that.” Concerns over a decline in reading are not limited to Denmark. The share of Americans who read for fun has declined sharply in the past two decades, according to one recent study. Researchers have theorized that the increased use of cellphones and social media, along with economic pressures, could be driving the trend. In Denmark, books are among the goods subject to a value-added tax of 25%, among the highest in Europe. Other Nordic countries, including Finland, Sweden and Norway, have lowered or entirely lifted the consumption tax for books. The Danish government said Wednesday that it would remove the tax on books as part of its new national budget, which is set for a vote in November. The country’s expected surplus would cover the cost of removing the tax, estimated to be about 330 million Danish krone (about $51 million), it said. One 2021 survey found that reading proficiency among fourth-grade students in Denmark had declined, with almost 25% considered “weak” readers who struggled to, for example, read between the lines or read critically. “The gift of reading and being able to concentrate on a book is something we should give to the younger generations,” Engel-Schmidt said. Encouraging people to read, he added, would promote literacy as well as the development of Danish culture. He pointed to worries over the overuse of social media, and said that in some cases a book could cost more than the monthly charge for a streaming service. “Online and physical books are losing in competition to streaming services,” he said. “And we want to make a more level playing field in that regard.” It remains to be seen whether tax removal will actually draw new readers. Danish publishers, authors and booksellers welcomed the new initiative, and said it would encourage more investment in new literature. Book prices are expected to drop by 16% to 20%, said Christine Bodtcher-Hansen, the director of Danske Forlag, a group representing Danish publishers. The move, she added, reflected a “political recognition of the book’s value and of the importance of a strong reading culture — something more crucial than ever in an age where reflection and critical thinking are essential.” Engel-Schmidt said that he had spoken with publishing companies that have promised to cut prices by about 20%. If it is approved, the removal of the value-added tax on books would be evaluated after four years, he said, and revised if book prices did not drop. “It is difficult to estimate the exact effect of this,” said Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, a professor of comparative literature at Aarhus University and the vice chair of a task force that proposed the move to the government. He added that the proposal was one of several steps the government could take to promote reading, including investing in libraries and building more social communities around reading. But removing the tax, he said, was the “right thing to do,” adding that it could help make schoolbooks and children’s books more accessible. Reading includes a wide range of benefits, Thomsen said, including the promotion of well-being and empathy for different perspectives. “It’s a problem if people don’t read books,” he said, “because that’s where people are confronted with complex ideas.”
