Did you know that paying the TV license fee is one of the most common mistakes made in the tax return? Good news: the tax authorities now remember your choice from last year, which avoids a few oversights…
The TV fee, of 138 euros, is in the hot seat: if the parties supporting Emmanuel Macron obtain a new majority in the National Assembly, the contribution to public broadcasting will be removed in order to take this yearin 2022. A measure which will have to go through an amending finance bill, after the legislative elections, and which requires finding a new mechanism to finance public broadcasting while preserving its independence… Depending on the outcome of the elections and from these debates, maybe no one will pay a TV license fee in October 2022!
Suspense. Without waiting for a reform, if ever you don’t have a television at home, you might as well declare it correctly to be sure of being exempt from TV license fees in 2022, whatever the outcome of the political discussions. This goes through the 2022 declaration on 2021 income.
The helping hand from the tax authorities to avoid errors
For the 2nd consecutive year, the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP) helps you avoid errors: the RA box which is used to declare the possession (or not) of a television set is now pre-checked according to what you declared on the past year.
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More concretely, before, the RA box, synonymous with TV license fees, was systematically unchecked. Result, do nothing = pay the contribution to public broadcasting, currently 138 euros in mainland France (88 euros overseas). To think check the RA box = affirm the DGFiP that you don’t have a television or assimilated device, and therefore do not pay the fee.
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And now? The principle remains the same, with one difference: if you checked the RA box to report the absence of a television in your home in 2021 so, the DGFiP pre-checks this same RA box in the 2022 declaration. If you still do not have a television or video projector, do not change anything: leave the box unchecked. Uncheck it if you have purchased equipment in the meantime.
Screenshots from impots.gouv.fr
One of the most common errors in the declaration
A detail? Maybe. But one detail that changes the situation all the same! The government website Oups.gouv.fr lists the most frequent errors in your administrative procedures. At the very top of the taxes section is I forgot to mention that I don’t have a television (Contribution to public audiovisual box 0RA). Bercy thus recognizes on Oups.gouv.fr that many taxpayers forget to tick this box and wrongly pay 138 euros.
Pre-checking the RA box for those who checked it the previous year may not erase all errors. But this novelty – applied since the 2021 declaration – allows at least those who fill out in a hurry (or who opt for automatic declaration) to avoid being fooled.
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The royalty, separate from income tax
You declare the possession of a television set at the same time as your income for 2021. But you do not pay the TV license fee at the same time as the income tax. It is claimed in the fall, together with the residence tax, even if you are now one of the households exempt from residence tax on the principal residence.
It is this calendar discrepancy that allows the government to promise an abolition from 2022, when it is already too late to modify the calculation of income tax for 2021.
The public audiovisual contribution