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The New Media Tax : Taxing You For What You Don't Use

It has been revealed that when the current TV Licence contract expires, Fine Gael aims to introduce a new tax on media devices such as phones, laptops, and tablets. This is an even more unfair form of taxation than the current TV licence, which basically taxes you for having the ability to watch RTÉ, whether you watch it or not.

While many make the argument that the TV licence is merely supplementing the enormous wages of many within the state broadcaster, the tax also goes towards producing Irish programmes and films. Without the revenue generated from the licence fee many of these would never make it to either the big or small screens.

Placing another tax on devices such as laptops and phones will be a much more unfair practice as technology allows for a tax to be placed on those who use the state broadcasters online service, RTÉ Player. The fact the Fine Gael didn't look at methods of generating state-media revenue through a membership service, shows that this is merely another attempt to take more money from the ordinary taxpayer. Using the same model as Netflix, Amazon prime, and YouTube, would have exclusively targeted those who watch RTÉ for the new charge.

If RTÉ Player required membership, the cost of which would reflect the current licence fee, then people would have a choice on whether or not they want to pay for RTÉ, a choice not afforded to TV owners since RTÉ is a basic channel. Why this isn't being done, is because I would imagine very few people would sign up for RTÉ at €160 per year, when Netflix is just €96 per year for a basic account. There is simply no comparison between the two.

Rather than placing another tax on people who predominantly don't use the service (10% of people don't own a TV and a further 12% of households are unaccounted for), the government should focus on modernising the state broadcaster in order to compete on an online platform. If RTÉ Player allowed you to watch every Irish movie ever made and every episode of every Irish series, I imagine a lot more people would sign up to that service. But while RTÉ Player lacks an archive, and RTÉ lacks varied programming and up to date series, the licence fee will be seen as just another way to get money from the taxpayer.

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