This old tax could return as early as 2025 and it concerns 80% of French people

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You thought you were done with the TV license fee? Think again, it could well make a comeback as early as 2025. In any case, that's what an ecologist MP proposed to the Assembly last October.

This project marks a break with the old system. Exit the uniform TV license fee of 138 euros, in place of the “progressive contribution to the financing of public broadcasting”. This new version would introduce a scale of 11 brackets, with amounts ranging from 0 to 220 euros depending on household resources. A significant change that aims to make the tax fairer by indexing it to taxpayers' income.

The exemption threshold would be set at 17,820 euros of reference tax income, which means that only the most modest households would escape this contribution. According to INSEE data, This measure would affect approximately 80% of French households, a proportion comparable to that of the old licence fee.

A budgetary necessity

This proposal is not the result of chance. The year 2025 will mark a turning point for the financing of French public broadcasting. The current system, based on VAT, will have to be abandoned due to a legislative change. This new contribution would therefore aim to guarantee stable resources to finance the entire public broadcasting landscape.

The media concerned are numerous: France Télévisions (France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5), news channels (Franceinfo, France 24), Radio France stations (France Inter, France Culture, France Bleu), not to mention ARTE, RFI and INA. All these actors require sustainable funding to maintain their public service mission.

This reform has been included in the budget proposals, with the State looking for new revenues. While the government has been saying for months that it wants to spare the majority of households from tax increases, this progressive contribution could impact the budget of many French households.

The final decision will be up to Parliament, but the option is now clearly on the table for discussions, if they resume quickly. The end of the Barnier government is indeed opening a period of political uncertainty. While the government will take charge of current affairs, no budgetary or tax bill will be voted on, unless a special law is put in place. In the meantime, the proposal has been made.

• The TV license fee could return in 2025 in the form of a progressive contribution of up to 220 euros
• The new system would include 11 tax brackets based on income
• This reform would affect 80% of French households, with only the most modest being exempt

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