Not content with a yearly household tax, the government is going to attempt to implement a new broadcasting tax to recoup the money RTE is losing hand over grubby fist.
“The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has said a new broadcasting charge, if introduced, would not be an additional tax.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Pat Rabbitte said almost every household, with few exemptions, would be liable for the new charge.
He said many people were now accessing public service content through other than traditional means and it had to be paid for.
The method of collection has not yet been decided on.
The Minister said the charge was not an additional tax, and the fee could be less than the current TV licence.”
The indo has another take on it to be found here
Now forgive me if I am mistaken here,but let me see if I can break this down. They, the government, want everyone in the country to pay for RTE, a state sponsored body, who also through advertising make money. They want people who DON”T have a television to pay for this state sponsored heavily advertised doo-hickey. We must pay this entertainment tax regardless or not if we watch this states sponsored heavily advertised yokeamebob. I just want to be clear here that this is what’s happening, and not, as I had initially thought, that the fuckers were trying to grab more of our hard-earned cash from our dwindling resources.
I’ve got it right, no?
Except-
“The concept of a TV licence fee is within a few years going to be an outdated concept,” the spokesman said.
He said details on exemptions for the charge have not yet been thrashed out, but he stressed it would simply be a replacement for the current licence fee and was not an extra revenue-raising exercise.”
Doesn’t really tally with-
“Mr Rabbitte said that those paying the current €160 annual television licence fee would not be affected as the new levy will simply replace it.
However, he conceded that if the new fee managed to address the €25m currently being lost in evasion, there was a chance the new charge could be lower.”
Someone earlier mentioned it should be called the Tubridy Tax, and lo, I think this is exactly what I will call it.
January 19, 2012 at 10:50 am |
We can’t blame RTE for how it’s set up – that’s down to DeValera who wanted political control but didn’t want to bear the full cost. The then Dept of P&T put together this public/commercial funding mix at his behest so we’d have the worst of both worlds and pay for it on the double.
This switch in emphasis has been coming for nigh on a decade once they realised that the traditional TV was not going to be the only way of watching telly and might only be used for, say, gaming rather than telly.
So this Home Entertainment Tax has been coming for quite a while. It will finally sunder the notion that we’re paying for RTE when we buy a TV license, and do away with the tv license as the only dedicated tax in the country – money that’s collected to fund a particular service.
Not all the license fee currently goes directly to RTE. There are collection costs that go to An Post and a percentage goes to a sizeable production fund managed by the BAI. If the new charge is less than €160 I’ll be happy.
All of that said I don’t see how they can force a household to pay this new tax if they have no telly and their available internet access is inadequate for video streaming or downloading.
January 19, 2012 at 11:31 am |
Oh I don’t blame them per se. But I’m curious how they justify making people who don’t have televisions pay this ‘ entertainment tax’?
January 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm |
Agreed, they seem to be stealing the Are you not entertained? line from Gladiator and imposing the tax on the presumption that the country’s so fucked that we depend on entertainment to keep us distracted.
As I may have muttered before there will be all kinds of taxes like these because they’re not income taxes. Rich or comfortably off folks have no problem with the ‘we’ve-all-got-to-pay-it’ flat rate taxes since these have less of an impact on their disposable wealth than they have on the less well off. The notion of ‘each according to their means’ has been thrown out.
January 19, 2012 at 12:04 pm
We sort of bloody do in a way. It lifts the tedium and stems the tide of ‘jesus, my house is worth what now?’ for short periods of time. No wonder the fuckers are gunning for it.
* blue*
January 19, 2012 at 11:50 am |
Also I’m getting really tired of the government gyves seemingly imposed wily nily. I wnder what’s up next, a tax on daylight?
January 19, 2012 at 12:10 pm |
Well there’s a household tax… this one is a telecoms tax… there’ll be a water tax… A fire service tax… A poo tax is on the cards…
Basically anything that is already licensed by or is a utility/service provided by the state will be made subject to an end user charge or tax.
(For God’s sake don’t tell them about rainwater harvesting or we’ll have to get a license for that)
January 19, 2012 at 1:13 pm |
Maybe its just the piss poor timing by the goverment but it seems as if they’ve been very quick to introduce new taxes and very slow in reforming the public sector cos that too hard and well theres contracts to deal with dont ya know.
This is the same govt that will wring its hands in dismay when the economy contines to contract by more than expected this year. (Cos we’ve no money) And even Germany will be hit because nobody can afforf to buy their exports anymore (The rest of europe has no money either)
Excuse me while I go off and bang my head against a wall
January 19, 2012 at 2:12 pm |
Pah . Perception and reality.
We couldn’t stomach more income taxes and so we have to pay more stealthy ones. Didn’t we all want to be able to see where our money was going? Tubbers tax is right.
January 20, 2012 at 10:06 am |
The people with little income and no influence could stomach more income tax, it’s the folks with lots of income and plenty of influence who won’t accept it (plus they’re getting to keep a lot of their tax breaks).
January 20, 2012 at 1:29 pm |
Speaking of sneaky hikes, check this nonsense out- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0120/1224310517460.html