Why TV tax in Israel can cause financial instability in Israel
Israel is a country where you can find many amazing and unusual things. Here they write from right to left, and the working week starts on Sunday. One of the incomprehensible phenomena for the guests of the country is the tax on television ("agrat-television"). Moreover, the obligatory fee is imposed not on watching television, in principle, but on the device itself.
Almost 90% of Israelis pay 379 shekels (about $ 100) annually to the state broadcasting account. It is impossible to evade payment - the state obliges, within 30 days, to notify special government agencies about the purchase of a TV for personal use.
Household appliances sellers also send a notification to the relevant structures about the purchase of a TV by a citizen. The tax is collected from one TV, other devices in the apartment are not counted for taxation.
Tax history
The television tax first appeared in Israel in 1967. Collecting money from the population became necessary to support the state broadcasting service. The broadcasting company carried out its activities with these funds. Since at the beginning of the era of television, not everyone could have devices for receiving video broadcasts, the state supported state television from the country's budget. When the distribution of television sets became widespread, the authorities refused to subsidize the state television company.
There are tax breaks for certain categories of citizens. Thus, disabled veterans, pensioners are exempt from paying the fee.
Today, the TV tax has been formally abolished, but notifications of arrears for this type of mandatory payments come to every apartment. Many Israelis have ditched televisions in the past, watching programs and movies from computers over the Internet. But at the same time, they forgot to notify the state about their decision. Over the years of non-payment, the amount of debt, penalties and fines have increased, and now about 170 thousand citizens are considered as malicious defaulters.
This fact significantly complicates people's lives, as it is an obstacle to purchases on credit, which is very common in non-CIS countries.
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