Higher VAT on books also affects access to science

The planned increase in the VAT rate from 9% to 21% on books will have a major impact on the accessibility of higher education. Although scientific information is one of the important sources of knowledge, students will incur more costs for their studies. At the same time, university libraries will be able to make less scientific information available. In addition, an extra tax on knowledge exchange comes at the expense of innovation. This not only obstructs the Netherlands' competitive position internationally, but also national security, for instance in the field of knowledge building on the rapid development of AI.

Therefore, the Dutch University Libraries and the KB, national library express their support for geenhogerebtw.nl and boekenpetitie.nl. We call on everyone to sign the petition against the intention to increase VAT by 12% on books and various scholarly information resources