Italian Television License
The licence fee was introduced for owners of radio sets in 1923, and is currently governed by a law which dates back to 1938!
In 2016 a radical change happened to the procedure for payment of a TV licence in Italy. The good news is that the ‘canone RAI’ (licence fee) has been reduced from Euro 113.50 to Euro 100.00. However the fee is now incorporated as part of your electricity supply bill (e.g. ENEL, Edison, Eni, etc.) even if you haven’t got any TV receiving equipment. In this case you’ll have to go through a somewhat complicated procedure to cancel this additional payment to RAI.
There are various web-sites to show you how you can cancel the TV licence fee, all of which are Italian-speaking and require some knowledge of bureaucratic terms. You must fill in a self-certification form for Italian Inland Revenue (Agenzia delle Entrate) purposes. Under certain circumstances you may lawfully terminate paying the TV licence by filling a form with one of the following reasons:
In 2016 a radical change happened to the procedure for payment of a TV licence in Italy. The good news is that the ‘canone RAI’ (licence fee) has been reduced from Euro 113.50 to Euro 100.00. However the fee is now incorporated as part of your electricity supply bill (e.g. ENEL, Edison, Eni, etc.) even if you haven’t got any TV receiving equipment. In this case you’ll have to go through a somewhat complicated procedure to cancel this additional payment to RAI.
There are various web-sites to show you how you can cancel the TV licence fee, all of which are Italian-speaking and require some knowledge of bureaucratic terms. You must fill in a self-certification form for Italian Inland Revenue (Agenzia delle Entrate) purposes. Under certain circumstances you may lawfully terminate paying the TV licence by filling a form with one of the following reasons:
- Those who don’t own a television
- Those who own a TV and are paying an electricity bill but already have a licence for their own home in the name of another member of the family
- Those who are over 75 years of age, receive an annual income no more than Euros 6,713.88 and live with no one but their spouse
- Those who have an electricity bill in the name of a deceased relative.
Agenzia delle Entrate Ufficio di Torino 1, S.A.T.
Sportello abbonamenti TV
Casella Postale 22
10121 Torino
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| Television License Fees are now the responsibility of the Italian Electricity Suppliers |
The reason for this change is that RAI depends on two-thirds of its income from license fees, when seven years ago (only) half came from the license fees. The rest of RAI’s income comes from advertising unlike the BBC (in the UK). Since tax evasion here is a national sport, dictatorial measures have been imposed by the state to get its long-suffering citizens to cough up.
The poor quality of Italian television has long been the source of complaints from many Italians and they have just cause to do so. If you're not into game shows, chat programmes, and cheesy variety then you'll have to settle for the advertising. On occasion you'll find some descent films but they will ALWAYS be dubbed if the original language is not Italian, they never use subtitles.
If you are like me and don’t want to watch Italian television, don’t have a TV or other programme receiving equipment then you must do a self-certification by completing this form.
Miss the deadline and you'll find the fee on your electricity bill and you'll be unlikely to get it back, even if they accept that you should get it back. A lot of people are still waiting for the refund of 2016.
They say that there are TV detector vans going around the country checking up on people who say that they don’t have a TV with penalties of confiscation of all TV sets and TV receiving equipment, including aerials, plus a hefty fine. So watch out for another future rise in the license fee to pay for all those empty vans, drivers and petrol costs...
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