Will the French save 138 euros with the end of the audiovisual license fee?

It has kept our public television and radio stations alive for more than 40 years. From now on, the contribution to the public audiovisual sector is a thing of the past. According to Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, this abolition benefits the portfolio of the French and “represents a saving of 138 euros per household“. But the government will offset this funding with a share of the VAT, the consumption tax. Will the French really pay less tax?

If the government has for the time being ruled out a rise in VAT, “consumption is increasing, and therefore VAT resources will probably increase, which allows the government to bet that taking some 3.5 billion from this global sum for the benefit of public broadcasting will not be a terrible drain“, explains Martin Collet, professor of public law at the University Panthéon-Assas. But this bet depends on the good economic health of the country and includes an expiration date: from 2025, it will be prohibited to allocate a tax to products unrelated to it. A new source of financing will therefore have to be found, which could for example be a new tax.