Sweden To Add Tax To Newspapers

As part of an effort to ease the debts of the Swedish welfare state, parliament voted Friday to place a 6 percent value added tax on newspapers.

Sweden has some of the highest taxes in the world, including a 25 percent value added tax on most products. But in an effort to sustain a wide range of newspapers, the daily press had been exempt.

Officials said the newspaper tax would provide the national budget with $54 million per year. The 349-member parliament, or Riksdag, voted 173-123 to introduce the tax, which takes effect Jan. 1.

Publishers have said the new levy will ruin some financially struggling newspapers.