The main goal of this study is to determine the role of indirect taxation in the Spanish publishing industry. The work includes: a) a tax treatment comparison of books in Spain with respect to the rest of European countries; b) an evaluation of the options for exemption or reduction of the value added tax (VAT) applied to books; and c) an analysis of book fixed-price policy applied in Europe. The conclusions of this work point, firstly, to the need to harmonize VAT in the EU space; secondly, to reduce tax discrimination between formats and, thirdly, to emphasize that indirect taxation could be converted, if it is not already, in a brake for the development of the digitization of the Spanish publishing industry.