Italy has reduced VAT on digital publications and e-books in an attempt to stimulate the country’s digital publishing industries. The standard rate of 22% will still be charged for publications which do not have an ISSN or ISBN number.
It’s estimated that approximately 4.5 million Italians are regularly reading e-books.
In 2015, the EU ruled that reducing VAT rates on ebooks was against EU law. However the culture ministers of France, Gerany, Italy and Poland have made calls for the EU to ensure that books carry the same VAT rate, irrespective of their formalt.
Source: Publishing Perspectives.