End of the TV license fee: are you really going to save 138 euros per year with the abolition of this tax?

The TV license fee is over. The measure was definitively adopted by the Senate at the beginning of August. “We continue to lower taxes for the French, welcomed Bruno Le Maire on Twitter, this Monday, August 29. This represents a saving of 138 € per household.”

But will all French people be affected by this measure? Not really. Indeed, if the TV license fee represented €138 per year for taxpayers residing in mainland France, it was only €88 for those living overseas.

Moreover, as TF1 recalls, many households were not subject to this tax. This is particularly the case of those who did not declare a television set, those whose tax income was equal to zero but also certain seniors, subject to means testing, residents of retirement homes and people with disabilities or housing a disabled person.

When will you be reimbursed?

Finally, it is estimated that 23 million tax households have so far been subject to the license fee for public broadcasting. Individuals paid monthly and totally exempt from housing tax who have already paid this contribution must be reimbursed in september by taxes. For these 6.2 million affected households, “reimbursement will be automatic by transfer to the bank account of the sums withdrawn”, specifies the site Service-public.fr. The monthly direct debit will be stopped automatically at the end of 2022.

If you are not monthly, you have nothing to do. The sum of 138 euros that the taxes should have taken from you will not be since the fee has been removed.

If you are still paying housing tax on your main residence and/or on your secondary residence, and you are paid monthly, the deductions made since the beginning of the year include the contribution to public broadcasting. This part will therefore be refunded to you, either automatically from the beginning of October on your bank account, or by a reduction in the residence tax still to be paid for 2022.