Posted on 07/01/2012 6:16:18 PM PDT by Cincinna
The French government is considering extending the television licence fee to include computer screen owners to boost revenues for public-sector broadcasting operations, the culture minister said on Saturday.
President François Hollande's Socialist government aims to raise an extra €7.5bn (£6bn) this year through tax rises included in an amended budget bill to be unveiled next week. "Is it necessary to extend the fee to [computer] screens when you do not have a television? It is a question we're asking ourselves, but obviously it would be a fee per household and you would not have to pay an [additional] fee if you have a computer and a television," Aurélie Filippetti said on RTL radio. She said the government would study the new measure in 2013.
The licence fee – €125 in mainland France and €80 in its overseas territories – is used to finance public television and radio. According to a Global TV survey in March, more than 11 million French people watch television programmes on computer screens, tablets or smart phones, a rise of 41% on 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.guardian.co.uk ...
Yes, the French government makes you pay a tax on your TV (about $150/yr), every single year. If you don’t pay, and some busybody neighbor turns you In, they can confiscate your TV.
FWIW, I never paid it.
Socialism and out of control taxes: coming soon to an out if control tax crazed POTUS if we don’t take action!
Commies always have to have their little boondoggles paid for by other people.
The French people should say, “okay, fine, screw TVs” and dump them.
The government would beg them to take it back, and give them money to do it.
Thanks Cincinna. A $150 TV tax? Hey that would beat having a bunch of commercials supporting broadcast TV, such that someone might be able to earn a living. /s
Tax vampires... anything you do or move incures a tax... Les Inconnus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at3Mnw1kjSg
So this is a new tax on people that have a computer but not a tv. How many people is that? This tax won’t raise much in revenue...
In England they have devices that can tell if you are watching tv in your house and then fine you if you don’t have a license
“So this is a new tax on people that have a computer but not a tv”
Anyone under the age of 40? All of us have laptops, but few of us have TVs.
A couple of years ago...the Germans did the same thing. The logic is...most everyone agreed on this...is that we are drifting toward a situation where the internet will be the new TV land. My son (German) today has no TV, and watches what he wants to....off his computer screen. There’s an entire generation going in this direction.
So the German TV mafia (gov’t run of course) figured out that in thirty years...they just wouldn’t have many viewers unless they got into this whole internet TV thing. They needed the tax funding to cover this.
Next you’ll see all the French IT companies shipping off all jobs to India....
The British famously had little sniffer vans with a loop antenna on the roof that were tuned to the line scan frequency of a CRT. With flat screens that doesn’t work, they are indistinguishable from a computer display and emit a much smaller signal. The tax was intended to support the BBC television broadcasts.
Do many people still watch broadcast TV in France, anyway, and is government broadcast TV what the tax is supposed to support?
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