Open access becoming more expensive due to VAT rules

Scientific publications are increasingly available free of charge to everyone. But universities warn that this shift towards ‘open access’ is being held back by VAT rules, following a court case they lost.

The Dutch Tax Administration has won a court case concerning the VAT rate for scientific journals: when are they allowed to charge the lower rate and when must they apply the higher rate? For a journal subscription, you pay the lower rate: not 21 per cent, but 9 per cent.

Revenue model turned around

With ‘open access’, the publishers’ revenue model is turned on its head. Universities no longer pay to read the journals, but to publish in them. Those articles then become available to everyone free of charge.
However, according to the Tax Administration, a different VAT rate (9 per cent) applies to ‘reading’ than to ‘publishing’ (21 per cent). The court has agreed with this, as evidenced by a recent ruling against the ICT cooperative SURF, which manages the subscriptions.

Contradictory

VAT makes the transition to open access more expensive. The sums involved are substantial. In 2020, knowledge institutions paid 62 million euros for subscriptions and publication rights.

UNL considers the VAT rules to be contradictory. “This places an unnecessary burden on researchers and institutions, whilst the government actually wants to stimulate innovation and knowledge sharing.”

(HOP, BB)