As we know, taxes are not particularly popular with anyone and, let’s face it, the Rai canon is undoubtedly one of the most unpopular ones. Every year, when the amount is communicated, it is rare that a fuss of complaints does not arise between those who would like to refuse to pay it and those who, although aware of not being able to do anything else, regret the money wasted because “there are never interesting programs on TV”.
A few days ago, yet another change was confirmed: in 2022 the Rai license fee will be paid for the last time in the electricity bill; from 2023, in fact, it will take care of it directly the Revenue Agency who, let’s face it, is one of the main actors in the maneuvers that the Draghi Government is implementing.
Why this umpteenth change? It seems to have been the same European Commission to ask that the energy bill and the RAI fee respond to two separate invoices if Italy wants to access the Next Generation EU funds of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, PNRR.
To confirm, the site luce-gas.it reports the following information note:
According to the latest updates, the RAI license fee, also in response to the requests of the European Commission, will be removed from the electricity bills starting from 2023, in conjunction with the energy market reform, thus remaining present throughout 2022. made official within the PNRR, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
But let’s start from the beginning and see what will actually change for Italians affected by the Rai license fee, between exemptions and payment methods.
Why do you pay the Rai license fee?
It is useless to go around it: there are many who wonder why they should pay the Rai license fee. Let’s start, therefore, from official definition given by the Revenue Agency itself:
The television subscription fee is payable by anyone who has a television set and is paid only once a year and once per family, provided that the family members reside in the same house.
In practice, all married couples and all those who have a family relationship, adoption etc. and that they are resident in the same house they have to pay the Rai license fee.
There is no exemption from the Rai fee neither for those who reside abroad and has a home in Italy in which there is a television.
When do you pay?
Each family unit pays the fee Rai pays once a year. The Stability Law wanted by Matteo Renzi has meant that since 2016 the tax was charged directly to the energy bill and distributed in various monthly installments, as it was assumed that all the holders of the electricity bill possessed a TV.
The purpose, essentially, was to get rid of the crafty ones who avoided paying the Rai license fee while owning a television and continuing to watch all the channels.
However, things are never as simple as they seem and now the music is about to change again.
The rai fee for those who have two houses
Who owns two or more houses can continue to sleep peacefully because, as written above, the Rai license fee is charged only once per family. In fact, the electricity bill always and only refers to one residence, and the same person cannot have two residences at the same time.
Therefore, the situation of the Rai fee in the bill will continue, for a while longer, to be the following:
- resident domestic energy supply -> charge of the Rai fee
- second home = non-resident domestic users -> no Rai license fee
Obviously, the declarations of the individual holder of the bill are authentic, who, at the time of connecting the energy supply, must clearly and correctly communicate which home is the residence.
Rai license fee and exemptions
Like any tax, too the Rai license fee provides for some exemptions. To be precise, there are four types of people who may not pay the TV license:
- the elderly with more than 75 years old with a maximum annual income of 8 thousand euros
- TV dealers and repairers – the exemption from the Rai fee only concerns TV sets present in shops
- members of foreign diplomatic and military corps
- all those in their own residence I’m without a television – in this case, none of the family must own it
Rai license fee and exemptions: how to request them? The exemption from the RAI fee is obtained through the presentation of a substitutive declaration to be filled in and submitted directly to the Revenue Agency through a special web service (with Fisconline or Entratel credentials), official intermediaries or certified PEC mail to the address [email protected].
A fourth possibility is that of fill in the appropriate forms and send them by registered mail without envelope to the following address:
Turin Office 1, SAT – TV subscription desk
P.O. Box 22
10121 Torino
In the latter case, the date indicated by the postmark will be taken into account.
Be careful because if the exemption from the Rai fee is due to the lack of a television set, the substitutive declaration must be sent every year.
When to ask for the exemption of the Rai fee. There are two periods where you can submit the request for exemption:
- February 1st – June 30th: in this case the exemption concerns only the second half of the current year
- July 1st – January 31st: the exemption starts from the following calendar year and covers it entirely
A third case concerns the activation of new users during the year on behalf of people who do not own any television: the request for exemption from the Rai license fee must be submitted by the end of the following month to the one in which the electricity connection was requested. In this case, you will be sure not to pay the Rai fee right away.
The news 2022 and 2023
In 2022, the Rai license fee remains substantially as it is today. The amount was confirmed a 90 euro and you will still pay in ten monthly installments charged within the electricity bill between January and October.
In alternativa, i retirees they can have recourse to another way of paying the RAI license fee, that is through charge on the pension – this, however, only applies if they have communicated the decision to their social security institution by 15 November of the previous year. For example, if I want to pay the rent by charging my pension in 2022, I will need to have applied by mid-November 2021.
The great revolution instead, it concerns the 2023 because, from here on, the Rai fee will once again be a separate tax, the collection of which will be managed directly by the Revenue Agency. This is a necessary change required by the PNRR as, how reports SkyTG24, the European Union has classified it among the “improper charges” to be eliminated from the electricity bill.
We are ready, therefore, to return to the dear and old bulletin with reason, unless the government tries to think of something more fruitful against evasion.
Indeed, too the lawyer Angelo Greco on his Youtube channel is skeptical about a possible return to the paper bulletin as it could happen that many – as happened in the past – do not declare that they have a television and, consequently, goodbye to the Rai license fee – especially since no one can afford to enter the house of others check whether or not there is a TV. But here there is a nice “problem” and it is explained by the lawyer. Greek in this video:
Rai fee also for smartphones and tablets?
As we have seen, the Rai license fee is linked to the possession of a television set. But what exactly is meant? The Ministry of Economic Development in a note published on the official website:
a device capable of receiving, decoding and displaying the digital terrestrial or satellite signal directly [..] or via decoder or external tuner. By tuner we mean a device, internal or external, suitable to operate in the frequency bands intended for the television service according to at least one of the standards envisaged in the Italian system in order to receive the relative TV signal.
From this we deduce that computer, smartphones and tablets are excluded as they don’t have a tuner.
However, the CEO of Rai Carlo Fuortes is more than aware of the fact that, by now, these electronic devices are also used to watch TV in streaming and, in the Supervisory Commission of 12 October 2021, proposed to extend the fee payment to these other devices as well.
The reasons? First of all, the current Rai license fee was established by a law enacted from 1938 which, however, no longer reflects reality. Secondly, Rai needs more funds and receipts coming from subscribers’ fees to continue its investment policy. Although, he admits, the introduction of the Rai fee in the bill has lowered tax evasion from 27% to 3%.
The other problem is the fact that the deductions from the concession fee for various licenses and authorizations mean that only 86% of all Rai fees actually paid are collected by the Italian television network.
Rai license fee as in Great Britain?
In an interview with Repubblica, Carlo Fuortes cites some countries of Europe whose model, according to him, should be followed as it provides that the tax for the television set applies, in fact, also to smartphones, PCs and other devices through which you can watch streaming TV channels.
One possible approach could be that of the BBC which, in addition to having increased the so-called licence fee (£ 157.50 to £ 159), beefed up the BBC iPlayer internet application and made it plain that, yes, to use it and watch movies and shows from your PC or smartphone you need to pay the fee.
In practice, Fuortes would like to introduce the Rai fee also to be able to use the RaiPlay application which, to date, allows you to (re) watch films and programs of various types trough Internet.
At the moment, however, it is not known still nothing certain about it, but we await the developments just around the corner.
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