Almost 7000 households are no longer exempt from the Serafe levy
Published: Wednesday, Dec 27th 2023, 09:50
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From January 1, 2024, exemption from the Serafe fee will no longer be possible. This means that around 7,000 households without receivers will now also have to pay radio and TV fees. This corresponds to additional revenue of around CHF 2.2 million.
In the past, households that do not have reception equipment for radio or TV were able to opt out of Serafe fees thanks to an opting-out application. This option will now end after a transitional period of five years, as the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) announced at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. The first fee was levied in January 2019. According to OFCOM, the fee exemption for households of recipients of supplementary benefits, diplomats and deaf-blind people will remain in place.
Only accepted applications
According to Serafe AG's 2022 activity report, 7833 households across Switzerland were exempt from radio and TV fees at the end of last year via the opting-out application. More up-to-date data was not yet available in December. In previous years, even fewer households had made use of the opting-out: There were 5065 in 2021, 4725 in 2020 and 6901 tax-exempt households in 2019.
Bakom itself expects around 7000 households to become liable to pay the fee. This corresponds to additional revenue of around CHF 2.2 million.
The figures refer to all accepted applications. Rejected applications or households sanctioned during checks are not included in the statistics. Between January 2019 and December 2022, OFCOM checked 1463 households to see whether they met the requirements for exemption from the levy. In 174 cases, a penalty notice had to be issued in connection with opting out.
©Keystone/SDA
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