Broadcasting tax (Switzerland)

The current fee for radio and television ( household fee according to Art. 69 ff. RTVG and the company fee according to Art. 70 ff. RTVG) and the reception fee ( Art. 109b RTVG) form the Swiss fee model for financing public radio and television broadcasters .

history

From 1998 to 2018, Billag was commissioned by the federal government to collect the fee monies. Since 2019 there has been a radio and television fee that is collected by Serafe AG (Swiss collection agency for radio and television fees ). The Swiss people voted in a referendum whether they should pass on the broadcasting fee. A narrow majority of 50.1 percent decided in favor. Before the reform, there were still device-related fees in Switzerland. The SRG budget was financed by users of radio and television sets.

Since 2019, the public broadcasters have been financed by all households, with non-owners of receiving devices being able to be exempt from the broadcasting fee for a 5-year transition period. The amount of the fee was set at 365 francs. Until 2018 you paid 451 francs if you had registered radio and television. The government said that the reduction would be possible because more households and businesses than before were asked to pay for the new regulation. The majority of the National Council supported the argument that technological developments made a system change necessary. Nowadays, you no longer need a radio or TV to receive broadcasts. Thanks to the Internet, this is also possible with computers, tablets or smartphones. For companies, the amount of the payment is based on the turnover. Companies that only make a small turnover should be exempt from the tax. According to government figures, this is the case for three quarters of companies. For companies that are above the assessment limit of CHF 500,000, staggered contributions are due. The Swiss have provided a transition period of five years for the entry into force. In Switzerland, too, there are options for not having to pay the tax, if you state certain reasons.

On average in Europe, the Swiss pay the most for public television and radio. SRG boss Roger de Weck and Federal Councilor Doris Leuthard said that it was a technical question. The critics stated, among other things, that the fees would then be converted into a kind of media tax. There was also talk of the contract and, secondly, the costs of the Swiss Radio and Television Company (SRG). One reason for the high costs is that Switzerland is multilingual. "If we were a monolingual country, we would have 60 percent of today's fees," said SRG director de Weck on the program "Schawinski". "Without the fees, the smaller parts of the country would simply not be able to have a program at the level of the German-speaking Swiss." Among other things, the linguistic minorities also receive much more funding. Many newspaper publishers are calling for the public broadcasters to shrink. They are too expensive and too big. The Swiss People's Party (SVP Switzerland) wants to switch them off completely. In Switzerland there is also the “Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television” (UBI). In this case, the SVP complained about the SRF news and was right.

On March 4, 2018, the Swiss rejected a popular initiative to abolish reception fees with 71.6%. The Swiss Federal Council decided that the reception fee will be replaced by a device-independent fee from January 1, 2019. The SRG then announced savings.

Contribution

Development of reception fees for private individuals (including VAT of 2.4% or since 2011 of 2.5%).

year	Radio (CHF)	Television (CHF)	Total
1987-1990	94.80	184.80	279.60
1991-1992	118.80	231.60	350.40
1993-1994	153.60	243.60	397.20
1995-1999	160.80	248.40	409.20
2000	162.00	270.00	432.00
2001-2002	162.00	270.60	432.60
2003-2006	169.00	281.40	450.40
2007-2010	169.00	293	462.00

After the system change in 2019 from the device-dependent reception fee to the device-independent household fee , all private households in Switzerland are generally liable to pay the fee. Regardless of the number of people living in a private household, they only have to pay one fee. Car radios, PCs and cell phones are included. The amount of the fee set by the Federal Council will be 365 Swiss francs per year from 2019. Non-owners of receivers can be exempted from the broadcasting fee for a 5-year transition period. Recipients of supplementary AHV / IV benefits under federal law can be exempted from the fees upon request. Until 2018 you paid 451 francs if you had registered radio and television.

Collective households , i.e. retirement homes, youth homes and homes for the disabled, pay a total of 730 Swiss francs per year.

Companies that are subject to VAT in Switzerland (with their registered office, domicile or permanent establishment in Switzerland) and with a worldwide turnover of over 500,000 Swiss francs are automatically subject to the radio and television tax. The corporate tax is levied by the Federal Tax Administration (FTA).

A reduction in the tax to CHF 335 per year has been announced for 2021. For collective households it drops to 670 francs.

Web links

Serafe AG: Official website
Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM): The new radio and television fee (brochure)
Anne Fromm: Are the Swiss switching off? In: Die Tageszeitung , February 24, 2018: “On March 4, Switzerland will vote on the license fee. If the opponents of the fee win, a European country could abolish its public broadcasting for the first time "