For the moment, businesses and professionals should be able to avoid paying the RAI license fee: after the arrival of the letters, there was a reconsideration. The fee will only be paid for PC monitors that serve as TVs.
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Since last week, the bulletin for the payment of the 2012 Rai license fee for companies has been received by a large number of businesses and professionals.
According to what is written in the attached letter and also based on the TV commercials airing during this period, companies would have to pay the fee even if they do not have televisions at the workplace.
Reference was made, in fact, also to PCs, smartphones, tablets, and all those devices that could allow the viewing of television programs.
A move that initially bewildered thousands of entrepreneurs and professionals and generated an immediate reaction from consumer and trade associations.
Explanations have indeed been requested from RAI itself, in addition to formal parliamentary inquiries to clarify the situation and possibly clarify the scope and limits of a rather old rule – the one that regulates the payment of the license fee – since it dates back to 1938.
Yesterday, RAI executives had a meeting at the Ministry of Development, after which an official statement was issued, in which it is possible to read that “RAI has never required the payment of the license fee for the mere possession of a personal computer“.
Furthermore, it is pointed out that this decision “limits the scope of the tax to a very specific use of the computer compared to what is provided in other European countries for their broadcasters (BBC) that in their license fee request have included among the devices suitable or adaptable for radio-television reception, besides television, the possession of computers connected to the Internet, tablets, and smartphones“.
All in all, and according to this update, the rule that regulates the application of the tax on possession of radio-television devices – simply called the “Rai License Fee” – will therefore be interpreted in a restrictive sense. It will not be paid for the mere possession of a PC or a smartphone but only in the case that the office has at least one monitor – for example – capable of receiving the TV signal and used as a TV.
It is not yet clear whether new letters will be sent to explain the situation and clarify the matter or if the letters already sent will simply automatically become void.
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