Telly License

[ChrisnJules]

Hi all,

We recently received our first notification for habitation tax along with a bill for a television license. Quite apart from the fact that the house is not yet occupied (renovations slowly underway - very slowly) we are not expecting to watch any French TV. Anyway, to cut a long story short, along with the help of a very good french speaking friend we discovered that if you write a note to the local tax office that states that you haven't got a telly then you don't pay the bill and they reissue the payment notice. So far so good.

The question is (we forgot to ask), if you have a TV but only use this to watch English Video's and CD's do you still need a license ?  Also, if you rent the property out and someone brings a portable with them, what is the law with regard to a license (same argument with a caravan I suppose)?  Can anyone help please ?

Thanks

Chris and Jules.

 

[Clair]

I'll make this brief as this has been asked and replied to many times and it's really quite simple:

if you use a telly at all in your French house, you have to pay for a licence.

The relevant authorities are not interested in which channels you choose to watch or not, if you only use it for videos or DVDs, as long as you have a RECEIVER, permanently or temporarily, you're supposed to have a licence.

The mere presence of a dish or an aerial on the house will alert them, whether in use or not.

Compare it with owning a car in GB: whether it's in the garage or on the road, it has to have a tax disc or a SORN declaration.

Clair

[Jc]

If you have a TV in the UK,you have to have a license even if you only watch videos on it!!

[ChrisnJules]

Thanks everyone. 

Guessed that this was a common question, but too lazy to go searching through the forum :-(

Pretty much as I thought and no different to the UK - just living in some kind of wacky hope that more common sense prevailed.........Now all I need to locate is a Plasma screen that does not have a receiver just an Audio Video capability...Mmmm... just like the one on my PC, now there's a thought...

Ta for now !!

 

[Opalienne]

How on earth are the authorities in any country expected to know what you use the TV for?   I really can't see what your use of your TV has to do with common sense........  And watching French TV will improve your French no end, even if a lot of it is rubbish

[Alex H]

"If you have a TV in the UK,you have to have a license even if you only watch videos on it!!"

Just to throw in my 0.02€

To quote the TV Licensing Authority - no you don't

"If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes (for example, a VCR, set-top box, DVD recorder or PC with a broadcast card) - you need a TV Licence. You are required by law to have one."

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp#link1

[ChrisnJules]

To be fair, my understanding was exactly that:  In the UK the license covers you for receiving broadcasted signals.  Static information or pictures displayed via digital or video media shown on a TV screen does not require a license. It is treated the same as watching a DVD on your PC or one of these large Plasma screens used for advertising.  In this respect, your telly just becomes a monitor.

A previous comment was how would the authoriteis know?  Well, TV detector vans pick up the Radio Frequency transmissions that your TV gives off when you are tuned in to a broadcasted signal. By virtue of this they can actually tell you what channel you are watching and when. They can't for instance, pick up data transmitted from a DVD to a PC or Plasma monitor. They can also pick up a Video or DVD played on your telly as this has to be 'tuned' into a channel, but this would obviously not be on the frequencies know to be used by the Beeb and ITV for instance. So you will be OK. Also, as with the UK now, when you buy a telly in France they take your name and address and check - devious little ploy!! Obviously if you bring one in to France in the back of your car, that's quite another story.

So - 'Common Sense' would be a clear statement from the French authorities that was similar to that provided by the British Broadcasting authorities - thing is, I can't find one, hence the reason for this debate. The basic assumption seems to be then that if you have a TV in France you MUST be receiving broadcasted signals by deffinition of being capable of so doing. Dare I say, if that's the case, its not very British !!

 

[BJSLIV]

Les téléviseurs et dispositifs fonctionnant en circuit fermé sont-ils imposables ?

Ne sont pas soumis à la redevance les téléviseurs détenus pour la réception de signaux autres que ceux émis par les chaînes de télévision.

Exemples : les écrans d'un système de vidéo-surveillance, d'affichage d'informations destinées au public ou au personnel d'une entreprise, de visioconférence, moniteurs d'un appareillage technique ou scientifique

 

Taken from

http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/dgi/public/particuliers.impot?pageId=part_redevance&espId=1&impot=RTV&sfid=50

 

So I think you could get away with a plasma screen directly fed by a dvd player. But a plasma screen fed by a sky box...........