01.07.10
Lame Taxes
We were greeted from our Christmas travels to a letter from the Agenzia Entrate – more or less the Italian IRS. By the end of January, we need to pay €109 (~$158). It’s TV tax time.
Italy’s three main, state-run television stations are supported by a yearly tax, paid for by everyone who has bought a TV. It doesn’t matter if you never watch the state channels, or if you only use your TV to play movies, or even if you have ever turned your TV on. If you buy a TV, they send you a letter in January asking you to cough it up. And the state channels still have commercials, so where all this money goes is a bit of a mystery.
So what’s a poor pastor to do? Do we pay the tax like good foreign residents? Or do we stick it to the man and refuse to support the media machine? Here are some facts:
- Christians who I respect have laughed at me when I asked if they pay the TV tax. They say it’s a joke and no one but foreigners who don’t know any better pay it.
- They can come and “audit” you if you don’t pay. What this really means is a bit of a mystery.
- After midnight, most of these channels play shows that range from soft-core, to full-out pornography. If I pay my tax, aren’t I supporting this programming as well?
I’d love to get a discussion going – but hurry … the tax is due January 31!
Heather Seybld said,
01.07.10 at 9:21 am
germany has similar channels (although, i doubt they have much to do with nudity) that no one watches, but everyone has to pay for. the radio tax is included, for a total of 107,88 €. we got a separate letter (since we sometimes use the car for “work” purposes) for the radio in there. i tried sending in a letter about getting out of that since the antenna has been broken for several years. the german tv/radio tax people are pretty serious around here, but if they weren’t so hard-core, i really wouldn’t feel like i was lying to them if i didn’t pay since i don’t watch their channels anyway.
Ian of England said,
01.23.10 at 2:00 pm
we have the same problem in UK – you pay the licence even if you watch live TV via the web! We pray for better TV in Italy – especially as we hope to go there for a while …but i guess render to caesar what is caesar’s and to God what is God’s….