Artists' Petition On VAT

Music is a powerful means of expression, underscoring important moments in people's lives and evoking strong emotion. An appreciation of music is deeply rooted in European society. Recordings by European artists and composers convey the diversity of this region's cultures, traditions, languages and musical genres.

Since music is an essential part of European culture, we believe that it is unfair to impose a higher rate of VAT on sound recordings compared to other cultural goods.

VAT on sound recordings is currently set at a minimum of 15% across Europe and in some countries is as high as 25%. By contrast, other cultural goods such as books, newspapers, magazines, admissions to theatres and cinema tickets are subject to rates as low as 5%. The European Union should urgently put an end to this cultural discrimination and allow sound recordings to benefit from the same reduced VAT rate currently provided for other cultural goods.

We believe that a VAT reduction would:

• improve access to our music for the public and encourage social inclusion, especially for young people.
  
  
• help support European creativity and promote cultural diversity
  
  
• boost a sector that employs over 600,000 people in the European Union
  
  
• show EU support for the music sector at a time when mass scale piracy threatens to undermine the future of everyone whose livelihood depends on music.

A reduction in VAT rates applied to sound recordings can be achieved.

We want to ensure that European musical creativity continues to flourish in all its diverse forms.