Innovations from 2024: High Serafe bill? You can do this

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Once a year, Swiss households receive an invoice for radio and television fees from the Swiss collection agency Serafe AG. This fee is mandatory and serves to finance Swiss radio and television (SRF).

The annual cost for private households is 335 francs. A collective household, i.e. a house, pays its inhabitants a fixed wage of 670 francs per year.

So far, so good. But for some people, this year’s Serafe bill was particularly high. In some cases, fees for the years 2023 and 2024 were combined into a single invoice, resulting in a total amount of 670 francs, and this amount was now owed to Serafe.

Some readers also told 20min.ch that they had not been able to receive an invoice from Serafe for years and were faced with additional payments of up to 1,600 francs.

Serafe media spokesman Erich Heynen explains it this way: “When billing radio and television fees, we rely on the data we receive monthly from the responsible resident services of the cantons and municipalities.” This means that if Serafe receives retroactively corrected data from municipalities and cantons, you will receive an invoice retroactively based on the newly provided data. Cantons and municipalities are responsible for the data provided correctly. Serafe is not allowed to make corrections and it is not her job.

He underlines that in Serafe, invoices are not simply left lying around, and that for the first time, retrospective data corrections have been received from municipalities. This led to higher bill amounts.

But what if you can’t pay the fees? There are the following ways to pay the invoice:

Yes, Serafe can offer installments. Serafe writes that anyone interested should contact us using the contact form on the website. There you can request to receive an invoice every three months.

Yes, but only after five years according to radio and television regulations.

Then Serafe may also demand money from you; Because all adults in the house are jointly responsible. It is better to ensure that the bill is paid on time to avoid paying reminder fees. In the second step, you can clarify how the roommate can pay his share of the shared apartment.

Supervision of Serafe belongs to the Federal Communications Office (Bakom), Radio and Television Fees Department. If you want to make a complaint, you can contact this appeal authority; for example, if there are fundamental questions regarding payment obligation, waiver of fees or debt collection.

The fee is no longer dependent on the device ready to receive it as before, it is basically the same for every household.

NO. If you cannot buy electronic media, that is, if you do not have a radio, television, car radio, smartphone, computer or tablet, you do not owe anything. In order to be exempt from the fee, you must apply to Serafe. However, starting from January 1, 2024, the legal situation will change: All private households will now have to pay taxes even if they do not have any receiving devices.

Do you have any other questions about Serafe? You can find the answers here.

Source :Blick