TV licence, Serafe in place of Billag

https://www.serafe.ch/en/exemption-f...or-television/

The form to do this is here:

https://www.serafe.ch/uploads/media/...Opting-out.pdf

Google translation of the conditions (mentions upto 5,000chf fine for falsely opting out, so go ahead be my guest...):

Information on private households without reception

Article 109c RTVG private households without reception facilities

1 All members of a household in which there is no device suitable for receiving radio or television programs be available or operated, shall be exempted from the levy for a period of

2 The Federal Council regulates which equipment categories are deemed suitable for reception.

3 OFCOM may enter the premises of a household exempted under paragraph

1 in order to verify that the Conditions for the exemption are given.

4 Anyone exempted from the levy in accordance with paragraph 1 and, before the expiry of the period of discharge in the household, a device suitable for reception provides or puts into operation, this must be reported in advance to the collection agency.

5 A fine of up to CHF 5'000.00 shall be imposed on anyone who is a member of a household exempted from the levy in accordance with paragraph 1 and in which a ready-to-receive device is ready or operated, without prior to the collection agency in accordance with paragraph 4 before to have reported.

Art. 94 RTVA Request for exemption from the duty to pay

1 An application for exemption from the levy may be made at any time upon receipt of the invoice in writing to the collection agency

become.

2 Any person listed on the tax bill can submit an application. This applies to all members of the concerned

Household.

3 The survey office makes an application available. The application can only be made on this form. OFCOM specifies the content of the form.

4 If the application is submitted within 30 days from the date of the invoice or the first three-month invoice Submission period, the exemption shall take effect upon approval of the application with retroactive effect from the beginning of the relevant application Delivery period until its expiration. If the application is submitted later, the exemption will take effect from the following month until Expiry of the relevant discharge period. The collection agency will provide written information to adults of the household

Confirmation to.

5 No fee will be charged for the treatment of the request.

7 If a household is dissolved, the exemption of its existing members from the duty to pay will expire.

Art. 95 RTVV Devices suitable for reception

Devices suitable for receiving radio or television programs are:

a. Devices intended for program reception or contain only components intended for reception.

b. Multifunctional devices, if they have the variety of receivable program offerings and reception quality

Equipment according to (a) are equivalent.

Information:

The ownership and ownership of the equipment does not matter.

Interesting isn't it, what you are assuming.

Are they going to force us to subscribe to a TV channel (and/or force us to watch it) or can we opt out of that and just pay this 'entertainment tax'?

My neighbour sometimes turns the volume iup so loud that I'm effectively already there.

Hoping can just pay and forget...

Hate Swiss radio, and the only thing I might watch on Swiss TV is F1, but could easily watch on a German channel.

I don't get it.. why don't they just levy this as another tax in your normal tax return (like fire department tax etc). Why the whole "invoicing" thing?

Do I legally need to pay an "invoice" that I didn't sign a contract for? If it is a tax, I understand that I do need to pay, no questions there. But how is this different from some random company sending me an invoice for 365CHF?

Because there is law which say you must pay:

https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classifi...index.html#a68

So it is like a tax. Why an extra company for all this billing? Because politics.

Would have been better to add as a tax, instead we have another company that needs to be staffed... and assume working for Serafe, you get exemption like billag employees did, and does the CEO also earn millions?

Well anyone posting here has access to the internet....

Billag employees were not exempt. But Billag paid the Billag fee for its own 300 employees. This was fully taxable as income. Unfortunately also the SRG paid the Billag fee for its 6000 employees.

https://www.parlament.ch/de/ratsbetr...airId=20145446

Not sure what the actual situation is. But it could be a thing of the past for SRF employees.

https://www.blick.ch/news/politik/ab...id7601953.html

on the other hand all got 0.3% more last year.

https://www.blick.ch/people-tv/tv/tr...id8183841.html

Also in case of Serafe employees it might not be paid. Billag took CHF 62 Million for the billing, Serafe uses only CHF 20 Million. That is CHF 5.40 per household.

https://www.blick.ch/news/wirtschaft...id8977602.html

My statement arrived yesterday (Saturday). It looks as if it is billed quarterly though?? I'll have to give it a closer look.

but what if you're using the connection from a friend? then could be covered under their bill?

Got mine the other day - billed up to July.

Mentioned earlier - staggered billing.

Population was split into 12 (or so) random groups, groups pays for

1) full year starting January

2) 1 month then full year starting February

3) 2 months then full year starting March

...

They explain it in the leaflet you got with the bill.

There seems no logic in this.

Got my bill today for January only. Should have been billed until end of July after the old system.

Can't be a name thing either as that would also put me in the middle of the year.

I just hope they don't send me a paper bill every blooming month. I'm gonna check if they joined ebill, just in case.

Isn't the charge once per household/per living unit? People living in, with others, shouldn't receive an invoice themselves.

They have. I just found it irritating they wanted to have not only an email address but also a phone number. Email is fine for the notification, they ́d better never try to give me a call!

Can't you put just zero(s) for the phone number? Sometimes works on forms.

Thanks.

Interesting, normally I just choose them from a list in my ebanking and that's that, no further info needed to be put in.

I'll check it out, I also usually do the 0-solution.

Anyway if they call, they just get registered by my call blocker, which then means nirvana for them, the line stays open until they hang up while my phone never even rang.

If the zero solution doesn't work, I put the number of a prepaid card we have that only gets switched on once a week. It takes me a couple of minutes to clear all of the text messages that come through from all of the missed calls...