Line chart showing monthly ebook pricing trends from December 2017 to April 2022 around the May 2020 VAT abolition: The series exhibits high monthly volatility between approximately 82% and 170% throughout the period. The introduction of the 20% ebook VAT cut in May 2020 is not followed by a distinct or sustained drop in pricing, with levels remaining broadly within the pre-cut fluctuation range.

Annotation: 20% ebook VAT cut (vertical dashed line at May 2020)

Vertical axis: 80% to 170% (in 10% increments)
Horizontal axis: Dec 2017 to Apr 2022 (monthly)

Data points (approximate values read from chart):
Dec 2017: ~146%
Jan 2018: ~101%
Feb 2018: ~124%
Mar 2018: ~85%
Apr 2018: ~91%
May 2018: ~99%
Jun 2018: ~105%
Jul 2018: ~102%
Aug 2018: ~88%
Sep 2018: ~90%
Oct 2018: ~87%
Nov 2018: ~119%
Dec 2018: ~91%
Jan 2019: ~104%
Feb 2019: ~119%
Mar 2019: ~84%
Apr 2019: ~106%
May 2019: ~88%
Jun 2019: ~95%
Jul 2019: ~103%
Aug 2019: ~141%
Sep 2019: ~170%
Oct 2019: ~116%
Nov 2019: ~143%
Dec 2019: ~107%
Jan 2020: ~100%
Feb 2020: ~124%
Mar 2020: ~132%
Apr 2020: ~100%
May 2020 (VAT cut): ~98%
Jun 2020: ~103%
Jul 2020: ~103%
Aug 2020: ~100%
Sep 2020: ~118%
Oct 2020: ~102%
Nov 2020: ~82%
Dec 2020: ~85%
Jan 2021: ~111%
Feb 2021: ~130%
Mar 2021: ~111%
Apr 2021: ~113%
May 2021: ~89%
Jun 2021: ~105%
Jul 2021: ~114%
Aug 2021: ~128%
Sep 2021: ~137%
Oct 2021: ~124%
Nov 2021: ~110%
Dec 2021: ~121%
Jan 2022: ~94%
Feb 2022: ~135%
Mar 2022: ~108%
Apr 2022: ~102%

ebook VAT abolition – pricing evidence

7 February 2023

2 Comments

2 responses to “ebook VAT abolition – pricing evidence”

  1. StephenB avatar

    I commend you for the part of your mission that “is to improve the public understanding of tax and legal policy” through the use of infographics to illustrate key policy issues.
    However, I wonder whether the graph above does so? My concerns are:
    1) The chart shows so much volatility in the chosen metric that is nigh impossible to infer anything.
    2) there is a key that appears to reference lines that are not shown, thereby causing confusion
    3) the x-axis is so densely labeled that it is hard to read/interpret. I think the chatf would be improved if these labels were restricted to just indicate the start of each year, or, at most, quarters.

    1. Dan avatar

      Hi – the chart is interactive… if you click on the legend you can turn data on/off, and you can zoom in to particular time periods. I agree the volatility makes eyeballing this difficult – if you look at our article https://taxpolicy.org.uk/ebooks you’ll see we employed standard statistical techniques to quantify the effects.

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