Same in Poland. You pay tax on printers, printer paper, disc burners, writable discs and so on, and in return you may legally make backup copies of the copyrighted works and share them with your close relatives. IANAL, though.
The best part is that this year they've added smartphones, tablets and laptops to the list of taxed devices, which is ridiculous and pure greed. And the minister argued that the manufacturers will bear the increased cost themselves, which just adds insult to injury. She also said that other countries do that already (Germany was the example AFAIR, hehe), but she just conveniently left out the fact that Poland already has one of the highest VAT rates in the EU, so our devices will be even more expensive relative to their base price, than they already are.
The best part is that this year they've added smartphones, tablets and laptops to the list of taxed devices, which is ridiculous and pure greed. And the minister argued that the manufacturers will bear the increased cost themselves, which just adds insult to injury. She also said that other countries do that already (Germany was the example AFAIR, hehe), but she just conveniently left out the fact that Poland already has one of the highest VAT rates in the EU, so our devices will be even more expensive relative to their base price, than they already are.