How important are TVs

[Ju]

The trick with the license is to pay cash and give another name and address

Sorry to be stuffy Aillis, but if you are supposed to pay a tv lisence fee, then you are breaking the law by not having one. I've just paid mine for the year, and no it isn't cheap but then little about this business is.

I run a reputable, above board business, and yet still tend to get tarred with the brush of people who run holiday properties on the black.

Ju

[Alan Knighting]

Ju,

I don’t like paying taxes of any sort because I regard them as legalised theft.

What I really can’t stand are those parasitic cowboys who work on the black, accept cash only and pay no taxes; those parasitic cowboys who want everything, state pensions and national health schemes, but make no contribution towards the cost of any of it.

Don’t apologise for being stuffy; tell "them" to get stuffed.

Alan

[Mountain Goat]

Alan,
That was carefully worded!
Goat

[Alan Knighting]

Goat,

As an ex-lawyer and as a lover of the English language I suppose I tend to use my words carefully.

The fact is I am perfectly happy with the alternatives of:-

1. Pay your taxes and get your benefits, or
2. Pay your way when the occasion demands.

What I’m not happy with is the person who wants to make a contribution of nil but who wants all the benefits.

If your guests want TV, and you want to supply them with TV, install TV and pay the licence fee.

Alan

[enid]

Can't tell you how much advice we have had from English people telling us how too get cheap Sky TVand get away without paying for our TV license - usually the same ones who use UK labour, tell me that they don't need to learn the language and don't like the French We are the immigrants here and I agree 100% with Alan and Ju - vehemently!!!!!!!

[Mountain Goat]

If your guests want TV, and you want to supply them with TV, install TV and pay the licence fee.

I seem to have stepped into the wrong conversation here, and I'll get my coat.

I'm not advocating anything ref. a TV licence. Mine was an innocent question about receiving French TV, not avoiding licence fees, so I'll start another thread somewhere
else.

Though I suppose I ought to ask if watching French TV in Switzerland whether I am morally bound to pay a French licence fee.

All I want to do is listen to Radio 4 and keep my French punters happy. To do this, and keep everyone else quiet, looks as though I will have to pay Sky, UK BBC Licence Fee, Swiss TV licence and French whatever.

Re Sky, I can't see anything wrong with trying to get the best deal. Of course, keeping in mind that receiving Sky anywhere outside the UK is 'illegal' anyway, so there's around 1/2 million Brits 'breaking some law' to get their dose of Coronation Street. I'm an Eldorado man myself.

Goat

[Hells Bells]

I think you will find that French TV licence is now included in the tax d'habitation.

[enid]

Perhaps we use the word thread on a forum because one comment from someone sparks off a thought or response in someone else and so like a thread things often don't stay in a straight line - we usually get back to the point though - so....

At the moment we only have French TV - plug in the TV and switch on - French TV - sorry I can't help more.

I think you will find that French TV licence is now included in the tax d'habitation.

Correct - but we have two gites on the site where we live and each one has to have a seperate license.

Hope that helps a little.

[Hells Bells]

The inclusion in the taxe d'habitation should stop it being avoided. We bought a TV at Christmas, but have had no request for a licence, nor any bills for Td'H yet.

[Ju]

If your guests want TV, and you want to supply them with TV, install TV and pay the licence fee.

I seem to have stepped into the wrong conversation here, and I'll get my coat.

My reply was not to you mountain goat, I just happened to post at the same time as you.

I have no idea how to get french TV in switzerland, sorry.

By the way, last year (ie 2005) we paid the TV licence as part of the tax proffesional, which we pay for one site instead of tax d'habitation. This year, ie 2006, less than 4 months since we paid the last licence, we received a seperate bill for the TV licence for 2006.

As to whether or not renters require TV, as a parent I certainly like to be able to stick on a DVD for half an hour whilst dinner is cooking, but I don't always want local TV. We have one gite with just DVD/videos, and the other two with French TV as well. I can't say I've had any comments either way about whether the French TV is worth having.

Ju

[Guest3]

Going back to the original question 'How Important are TV's?', we have a Sky TV with all the UK land line channels. I think this is a bonus for our guests who rent during the Winter season when the weather can be a bit 'hit and miss' and the day light hours are shorter.

I don't think many of our adult guests actually watch TV in the Summer months, but it is an option that could swing a booking, especially if they have small children...the best programme on TV for them is the CBBC channel and quite a few guests have said that it saved packing DVD's and videos for the children because we have Sky.

And finally..whoopee!! ...we don't have to pay TV licenses here in Spain!!

[la vache!]

Crystal you are lucky!
We have freeview satellite in the gites, but I pay for the 3 French TV licences - it cost about 315€ a year (not including my own which is on the Taxe d'habitation). I've just had the bill. However, I have had at least a couple of my June/July bookings ask me to confirm specifically that we had UK TV as they don't want to miss out on the World Cup.

Mountain Goat, if you want Radio 4, you just need a freeview card which is free (although you have to pay the initial charge of the digibox and dish). You don't have to pay the UK licence fee. If your guests want French TV, can't you pick it up off the terrestrial signal for the time being, just put the aerial in the right direction? You should only pay a TV licence to the country in which your TV is located. We used to pick up UK terrestrial from the Channel Islands, but paid a French TV licence.
French TV is just slightly more uninteresting than UK TV, and if you watch TF1and M6 (except Sunday nights when there is an intelligent documentary), you wouldn't know the difference as reality TV is duplicated everywhere with the same format. France 2 and 3 and channel 5 are much better.