This morning’s newspapers’ front pages

NewsBrands Ireland is an umbrella group which represents national newspapers, in print and online.

It released a statement this afternoon, following Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe’s announcement that the Government is maintaining the 9% VAT rate for printed newspapers and cutting the VAT rate from 23% to 9% for the papers’ digital content.

NewsBrands Ireland had been lobbying the Government to reduce both the newspaper and digital VAT rate to 5%.

The statement says:

NewsBrands Ireland Chairman, Vincent Crowley said: “We welcome the Minister’s decision to maintain the 9% VAT rate for printed newspapers and also to cut the VAT rate to 9% for digital publications, which will reduce the cost of access to quality, independent Irish journalism for people who access their news online. “Most European countries apply zero or super-reduced rates to newspapers in recognition of their core societal function. Hopefully today’s news is a step in the right direction and that next year’s budget will see further progress in this regard,” concluded Mr Crowley. NewsBrands Ireland will continue its #JournalismMatters campaign to push for policy measures to support independent journalism and bring Ireland’s policies into line with our European counterparts.

NewsBrands Ireland welcomes maintenance of 9% VAT rate on newspapers – and reduction of VAT on digital publishing to 9% (NewsBrands Ireland)

Pic: NewsBrands Ireland