Audiovisual royalty: how the deputies have planned to compensate for its abolition (if we tell you: VAT?)


Alexander Boero

July 25, 2022 at 2:30 p.m.

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Television

The deputies voted this weekend to abolish the TV license fee. In return, public broadcasting should still benefit from a fraction of VAT revenue.

The abolition of the audiovisual license fee was a joint proposal by several presidential candidates, including the re-elected head of state Emmanuel Macron. The latter, discussed in the National Assembly as part of the examination of the amending finance bill for 2022, was validated on Saturday by the deputies, by 170 votes for, and 57 against. However, the government had not provided for compensation through VAT. Explanations.

A hole of 3 to 4 billion euros to fill for the public audiovisual sector

The deputies therefore decided to abolish the audiovisual levy, this tax paid by each household declaring to have a television set (or equivalent device, of the recorder type for example) in its dwelling. The executive wanted this measure to inflate a little more the package of measures in favor of purchasing power.

The audiovisual contribution represents a budget, for those who declare it, of 138 euros per year, or 88 euros per year if you live in an overseas department. 23 million households paid the license fee each year, for revenues estimated between 3 and 4 billion euros. But this tax no longer reflected the reality of the uses of public service broadcasting “, justified the government in its proposal.

France has therefore taken the plunge, joining countries such as Norway and Belgium, which have chosen a model of financing from the state budget with a five-year guarantee. But while 2.5 billion euros were paid each year to France Télévisions (thanks to this fee) and a little over 600 million to Radio France, the rest being paid to the Arte group, France 24 or even RFI, how will public broadcasting cushion the disappearance of this financial windfall?

Partly covered by VAT

To compensate for the shortfall, the bill provides that ” from 2022, the financing of public broadcasting will be ensured by an ad hoc budgetary mission created by this bill, including one program per public broadcasting body, in order to maintain the level of detail currently available with the CCF (Editor’s note: financial assistance account). »

But the deputies have especially provided for a levy of a fraction of VAT. ” There will be a share of revenue from VAT which will guarantee the financing of public broadcasting in France “, confirmed the deputy Renaissance Prisca Thévenot this weekend with our colleagues from franceinfo.

On the side of the majority, we assume this choice, not necessarily the first of the government, recalling that it was necessary regularly ” pot because the fee mechanism alone was no longer sufficient. The left-wing opposition is indignant, the NUPES accusing the hemicycle of abolishing a tax from which some are exempt today to replace it with ” a very unfair tax, VAT, which everyone pays, even those who don’t have a TV “. Others propose, notably among the Socialists, a progressive tax to maintain the financing of public broadcasting.

Source : National Assembly



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