Don't, trust me, it will hurt you more then them. If it makes you feel any better: this is not the worst kind of "mass collection" in Switzerland. At least it makes some sense.

If you want to know about total nonsense then consider Pro Litteris, both of my tiny companies housed in the same building must pay them yearly amounts because "we might have copy machines and thus make copies of books".

That peed me off as well. Tied to number of employees. I took it as licence to make copies of books. The first bill was so unprofessional and scrappy, it nearly was binned immediately. They've got better in the last few years.

For the OP - here are the exemptions to paying Serafe:

• Households with persons who receive annual supplementary Old Age, Survivors' and Invalidity (OASI / AHV-IV) insurance benefits from the federal government
• Households with no means of receiving radio or television (no radio, no television, no computer, no tablet, no smartphone, no car radio, etc.)
• Households of deaf-blind people, provided that there are no people liable for the fee living in their private household
• Households of diplomats

Unless you are on this list, if you can have a smartphone, you must pay. That's the law.

__________________
Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

Just received a new serafe bill.

It says that they are refunding the VAT for the years 2010-2015 (which for those who have been following this saga, was found to have been charged illegally).

So total bill is 280 instead of whatever.

I guess this is especially cool for those who never payed Billag in those years.

Hello everyone and thanks for such an insightful forum.
Do you know if the payment to Serafe is on an individual basis or household basis?

The reason why I am asking is because I have recently moved to Switzerland into a temporary apartment - and received the Serafe payment request.
I will be moving next week to another apartment (permanent one) and was wondering if I will get again the payment request...

Thanks!

I came to this thread to ask the same question

I’ve received the bill at my AirBnB, meanwhile as of last week I have registered at my new apartment. So my question is, is the Serafe bill linked to me as a person, or to the address?

I’m happy to pay it, I just don’t want to pay for it at Apartment A and then get a second bill for Apartment B.

Exactly. Same over here, happy to pay it... but just once

Municipality will let Serafe know that you changed your address. No double payments and the next bill will be in a year. But it might be different if you divorce - it is paid once per household. And after separation, there would be 2 different households.

Hello.

I've sent the letter every year for opting out (not registered) without any problem but this month I received the yearly receipt with both years 2021 and 2022 together......

What can I do in this case?
I have an internet-free apartment, no smartphone or laptop there. I have one at the office for work.

Is it mandatory to send the opting out letter registered?

When is coming a new referendum against this nonsense?


Thanks

How did you post this at 18.30? Doing over time at work??

Under the new rules, it is much harder to be freed from the requirement to pay Serafe. It's possible that you might have qualified for the exemption previously, but no longer do under the new regs.

Take a gander at this from Beobachter:

https://www.beobachter.ch/digital/mu...SAAEgKt9_D_BwE

Specifically:
Ich habe keinerlei Geräte. Schulde ich den Betrag trotzdem?

Nein, in diesem Fall müssen Sie nichts zahlen. Allerdings gilt diese Befreiungsmöglichkeit nur bis Ende 2023. Voraussetzung ist, dass Sie keine elektronischen Medien empfangen können, somit weder Radio, Fernseher, Autoradio, Smartphone, Computer noch Tablet haben.

So gehen Sie vor: Warten Sie die Rechnung ab. Reichen Sie dann mit einem 'Formular der Serafe' (my note: this is a link in the article) ein entsprechendes Gesuch ein, und zwar für jede Abgabeperiode neu. Wer keinen Internetzugang hat, kann das Formular auch per Telefon unter der Nummer 058 201 31 67 oder mit einem Anschreiben bei der Serafe bestellen. Wenn Sie später ein Gerät anschaffen, sind Sie verpflichtet, das sofort zu melden. Das Bundesamt für Kommunikation kann befreite Haushalte kontrollieren.

---

Do note that the exemption is only through 2023.

That was helpfull.
Thanks.


I work in the evening.