I'm conflicted about this. It's actually a very regressive tax, you pay the same whether you are rich or poor, whether you have 1 television or 20.
It's also enforced in an incredibly harsh manner and we (the taxpayers) are actually footing the bill to send people to jail who get caught without a license and then can't afford to pay it (though an outrcy in the House of Lords massively reduced the number being imprisioned down from 200 to 20 (roughly) a year.
On the other hand, if it came up for debate and reform, certain political factions would basically kill the BBC, which I love.
The place where I work was sent a payment notice (we don't have any TVs there). There was a strict instruction that failure to respond was a terribel thing and bad things would happen to us. There were lots of ways to respond if you wanted to pay or wanted to claim you already had a license.
There was no way to tell them you didn't need a license.
The next step is [they say in the letter] that they send an enforcement officer to your address.
If they just had a general phone number or a "we don't have a TV" phone number they'd have saved themselves at least the cost of sending someone out to try and hassle us ... and I'm sure a lot of other people.
It's not my job to chase up their failure to provide contact details on a demand for money.
OT: We got a parking fine when I took my wife in to have our baby last week. The number to call to pay the fine is the wrong number ... gah! I'm just not sure if this is malevolence.
I don't have a TV and I live in the UK and the licensing people are aware of this. I do have broadband at home. At first I thought I would watch TV via the iPlayer, but it turns out that I've watched a grand total of one program in the last four months.
I have heard that you have to jump through some pretty annoying hoops to prove that you don't have a TV. Since the government just assumes that you actually have one and just don't want to pay.
When I returned to the UK I simply wrote the TV licensing authority a letter telling them I didn't have a TV. They replied with a menacing letter claiming that I probably didn't realize that I did have a TV somewhere hidden in the house (in the form of some sort of TV receiver).
They then sent me that letter again. I guess the first letter was meant to scare me into paying under the assumption that I had lied.
Then they sent me a letter saying that they would pop round at any time of their choosing and check up on me. They have not yet done so, and if they do they are not coming in. It's a private property and they'll have to get a search warrant (which means going to a magistrate) if they think I'm watching TV.
You have to jump through hoops to convince them you don't have a TV, and they'll keep sending you letters asking for money. But, if you don't have a TV, just don't pay. They never force you to pay, and the onus is on them (I believe) to demonstrate you have a TV before they fine you.
Our records show that no one living at your address has purchased anything from Foo Department Stores during the past year. Since 99.9% of the UK population buys at least one item each year from us, you must have stolen something from us.
To pay for the item you have stolen ... .
Otherwise we will have to come and search your house to discover what you have stolen from us.
Good points, it does seem a little outrageous people can go to jail for not paying their TV tax, however I guess it has to have some punishment for not paying it, else who would? :D
I loathe state media. The idea that the government runs media is very 1984. And they don't work for free, they just make money by forcing you to pay at gunpoint instead.
They are not neutral (which is impossible) so there are certain ideas that they promote in their reporting. And even people who are against those ideas are forced to pay for the promotion of those ideas.
It's a tax I can honestly say I don't mind paying!