MINISTER of Finance Antti Rinne (SDP) addressed on 13 November on Mediapäivä (Media Day) the inequality of value added taxation (VAT) between printed and digital media. Declining VAT to 10 per cent was supported also by the main representatives of other parties. Viestinnän keskusliitto (The Federation of the Finnish Media Industry), which has been promoting the change for a long time, was also pleased.
"It is important for us that all digital content is treated the same way. The use of media has changed all the more to the direction that people can choose their contents also in the digital form. Therefore, it's not rational that in taxation print and digital contents are treated differently," the executive director of Viestinnän keskusliitto Valtteri Niiranen says.
At the moment, the VAT of newspapers and books is 10 per cent, and that of digital contents 24. Yle makes an exception – it pays 10 per cent VAT of the compensations received from television and radio operation, in this case from Yle tax accrual worth 500 million euros.
According to Niiranen, declining VAT on all digital content is not justifiable.
"We have a law on the freedom of speech in mass communication, which defines that every newspaper and magazine, also those in digital form, needs to have an editor of chief.
These are the type of media that the decline of digital VAT could apply to," Niiranen continues.
When the VAT discount on digital media would be connected to the editor in chief's responsibility, it would prevent the effect of VAT discount in Finland on foreign operators, such as Netflix.
Also executive director of MTV Heikki Rotko requires the decline of VAT on digital contents.
"That way we would be able to boost the production of digital contents. As all media operate on scarce resources, we invest less than we would like to. The decline of VAT would be a simple way of speeding things up with investments," Rotko says.
"In terms of freedom of speech index in the world, Finland is one of the best countries with a genuinely transparent, true freedom of speech with professional media. It is a value to be cherished. If the resources are kept too scarce, however, this will be endangered," Rotko continues.
MTV 13 November. JUKKA AURAMIES
