A hypothesis floats in the limbo of the Italian fiscal future. Could the Rai license be extended to mobile devices from next year?
In a few weeks, watching TV at home will be a habit that will radically change. In fact, at the end of the month, the first taste of the new digital terrestrial will arrive, which will become definitively operational starting from the new year. But that’s not the only dispute gripping the future of television. In fact, in recent weeks, the Rai license fee regularly ends up on the table of public debate, not so much for the tax itself, but for the possibility that with 2022 something could change in the payment procedures. The last item concerns the possible return of the separate bulletin with respect to the electricity bill.
At the moment, however, we are thinking by hypothesis. At this rank, however, the reasoning on the possible increase has not even reached us. The CEO of the Rai group Carlo Fuortes, in fact, had compared the amount of the Italian tax with the one that other European countries apply on public television, showing that states such as France, Germany and Switzerland travel on much higher thresholds. Hence, suggesting how the relationship between tax and service would be incongruous in our country.
Rai license fee and smartphones: what you need to know
In Italy, however, the Rai canon is anything but loved. And the decision to include it in the electricity bill, a move decided in 2016 by the then Renzi government to combat tax evasion, certainly did not improve the relationship. This strategy, in fact, assumes that every taxpayer with an electricity supply has a device at home that can offer a satellite TV service. By requiring anyone who is not in this condition to communicate it to the Revenue Agency. In any case, a fee related to mobile devices is not included in the 90 euro fee per year. Yes, because various smartphones and iPhones allow you to access the same services as a TV. In some cases even more performing.
READ ALSO >>> Rai license fee, soaring threshold in Europe: is there a risk of an increase?
Basically, at least for the moment, the Rai Fee applies to a television set “capable of receiving, decoding and displaying the digital terrestrial or satellite signal”. Both directly and via decoder. Therefore, without a television in the house, it is possible to be exempted from paying the fee, upon notification to the Revenue Agency. Smartphones and the like, therefore, are excluded. But, in 2022, something could change. And it is the CEO Fuortes who launched an alarm bell, launching between the lines the proposal to extend the application of the Rai Fee to multimedia devices, precisely in the name of the incongruity found in the applications compared to other European countries. A decision that would be able to create a short circuit …
–
