Croatia and Finland are the only two European countries with a 22% VAT rate for printed publications, which is equal to the overall VAT rate in all other economic sectors. The exception in Croatia are books, with a zero VAT rate.
According to data from 2005, high VAT rates for printed publications were also reported in Slovakia (19%), Hungary (15%), Ireland (13.5%), and Slovenia (8.5%). Other Croatian neighbours too have lower VAT rates for newspapers.
Newspaper publishers in Great Britain and Belgium have managed to secure a zero VAT rate for printed publications, and the VAT rate in 14 EU countries is below five percent.
Croatian newspaper publishers complain that they are expected to be reliable, socially responsible, and highly professional, but that when tax policy is discussed, newspapers are being treated as any other commodity.
Josip Bursic, leader of the Newspaper Publishers Association, has warned on several occasions about the increasingly difficult market position of the printed media and the unequal competition between the printed media and the electronic media.
The HND supports changing the VAT rate for newspapers, not including magazines, on three conditions - the newspaper owner would have to have signed a collective agreement with employees and the media statute with journalists, and he would have to publish weekly supplements on culture and science making up a minimum of 20% of the newspaper edition.
The same conditions would apply to newspapers that are published on a weekly basis.