How much will the abolition of the contribution to public broadcasting cost? The president, then still a candidate for his own succession, undertook to put an end to this local tax, associated with the housing tax. Nothing really surprising in itself: Emmanuel Macron has also deleted – in part, at the time of writing this article – the latter; de facto transferring charges to other taxpayers, as economist Philippe Crevel explained in our columns. It is now the owners and tenants, among others, who must bear the cost of this abolition.
In the case of the television license fee, indicates La Tribune on its site, it is three billion euros per year on which the State decides to sit. “The contribution to public broadcasting will be permanently abolished from this year, and the financing of public broadcasting will be ensured in compliance with the constitutional objective of pluralism and independence of the media”, specified Bruno. The Mayor at the time of the initial announcement. Without specifying how he then intended to finance such an operation.
In fact, the abolition of the television license fee would allow French women and men to save up to 138 euros a year. A proposal, indicates France Culture on its site, which seems to appeal much more to politicians than it tempts taxpayers. Only one in five French people said they agreed with the government’s proposal at the end of June 2022. That being said, only 16% did not advocate any reform, continues the press title.
After being silent for a long time on this subject, the government ended up revealing some of the avenues envisaged to finance the abolition of the contribution to public broadcasting.
Gabriel Attal, Minister of Public Accounts, thus said he was “ready” to look at the trail of a “tax affection”. Concretely, specifies Le Monde on its site, it is therefore a question of going through VAT to finance the loss of earnings thus generated. Of course, it would only be a question of affecting “a fraction” of it… up to around 3.7 billion euros.
As things currently stand, the contribution to public broadcasting serves in particular to guarantee the independence of the press which depends on it. A recent report jointly published by the General Inspectorate of Finance and the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs also points to the risk of loss of independence following such a measure.
However, recalls MoneyVox on its site, the Head of State does not believe that such a tax indeed guarantees the independence of the press. This is why it seems legitimate to eliminate such an expense…
