ATHENS – Greek publishers say they need a cut in the Value Added Tax (VAT) on sales of books from 24 to 6 percent, including on printing and bookbinding and production costs or they won’t make it.

Several publishers told Kathierini that the difference between VAT on sales and production costs is taking away a critical cash reserve, putting smaller houses on the edge of going under and larger ones looking for foreign services.

Yannis Konstantaropoulos, publisher of Minos and President of the Association of Greek Books, said publishers “prepay very high VAT, which, however, is not offset by the low VAT of sales.”

“We must have a 400 percent profit for this to happen,” he said, noting that when there is such a big difference between VAT, “we always end up being owed a refund from the tax office, which can come in three months.”