How much will people in Austria have to pay for TV and radio contribution fees?
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Loading... - Angelina Hauser
- 24 Mar 2023
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A general household levy, paid by every home in Austria, will substitute the current GIS fee from 2024, as the government previously announced.
Now, the federal coalition has agreed on the main features of the new “ORF law”, with a levy that should cost around €15 a month (plus state taxes), Media Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP) announced.
Federal taxes and VAT will be eliminated from the fee, she added during a press conference on Thursday. Only primary residences will have to pay – secondary homes will be exempt.
GIS is Austria’s TV and radio licence that can set households who have TV or radio equipment at home back between €22.45 and €28.25 per month, depending on the state, a month. Most of that money goes to the public broadcaster ORF and pays for in-house productions, broadcasting equipment, technical equipment, licences and more.
Even people who don’t watch ORF programmes need to pay for GIS as long as they have a device capable of receiving the broadcast. However, those who don’t pay for it because they don’t have such devices can still stream the content online, which Austria’s Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional, as The Local reported.
The 2022 court decision stated that Austria’s legislative power had to “close the streaming gap” by the end of 2023. Several options were considered, but in the end, the ruling coalition decided on a household levy in line with the system in neighbouring Germany. In Germany, the current fee is €18.36 per month. Read More..
