If you're not interested in researching further, then correct.

Do I have to get a TV licence from Billag?

I'm surprised by all the references to the Billag fee as a "tax". It's not. Simple as that.

Taxes can only be levied by governments. Billag is not a department of any government. The fee is ... a fee. A fee for service, which if not used, should not be charged for, most people would agree.

If a Domino's driver knocked on my door and aked whether I had teeth and a pizza cutter, I wouldn't shell out a delivery fee unless I actually wanted some pizza.

Disclaimer: the above scenario should not be considered a direct analogy.

It's not that simple. Billag may be a private corporation, but they are acting on behalf of the state to collect money for something that is very difficult to opt out of. They're not just charging for the state run TV and radio services, but they're charging for the right to own any equipment that can receive such signals, even if that's not what you use them for. Charging people for the right to own something - even if they don't use it - is a tax.

To use your analogy, it's a bit like owning a pizza cutter but just using it to scrape putty, and the Dominos guy saying that because you own a pizza cutter you can theoretically eat pizza so you have to pay for what he is delivering, regardless of whether you ordered it or are even hungry.

So joining a gym and then never going, is a tax? No it's not. One can simply not buy a TV. If one needs a computer monitor only, then buy a computer monitor.

You don't need to pay the Billag just for owning a computer/laptop and having internet access, whatever some people may try and say. Such as Ace1. And the Billag

http://www.bakom.admin.ch/dienstleis...x.html?lang=en

Service fee or tax, don't want to enter that discussion.

However, from you own post and link Adrian:

Exactly. No subscription, no Billag fee.

We don't have a TV and nor have we registered for a TV service via our computer.
We have a radio in the car and a couple at home.

We pay just the radio portion of the Billag fee.

We have spoken to Billag about this and it's fine by them.
They came around the other day to ask whether we had recently purchased a TV since their last visit and we told them we hadn't and they went on there way.

In Adrian's official link, it's quite clear who needs to pay and who doesn't so I can't understand why people on this thread keep making up their own rules about it.

It is a tax of a sort.

Just like gambling and the lottery are a tax for those who don't understand probabilities.

And the half price card of the SBB is apparently half a tax.

A quick question, maybe it is already answered somewhere...
Does Cablecom or any other TV service provider report to Billag on new subscribers?

I am quite sure they do not. I was subscribed to Swisscom for 1 year, and then Cablecom for 15 months before they finally caught me. There was a Billag inspector knocking on my door one night at 10pm, asking if I had a TV. It was only a few meters away, plainly visible, so there was no escape.

Oh what a wasted opportunity! You should have just said "no" and not let him in

I wish! but he could see it directly from the door! let that be a lesson to you all, if you can avoid it never place the TV visible from the entrance door.

This was around the end of last year, at least when he asked "for how long have you had it?" I replied something in French like "since February". He thought it was February 2012, but it was actually February 2011 My poor poor French did not let me correct him

If that happened to me, I'd like to think that after saying "no" and Billagman saying "but there it is! Look!" I'd then wave my arms around and say "it's an illusion!!!".

AFAIK they're not supposed to come to your home after 8pm.

If you do like some in this thread - just don't answer the door - then they will show up later when most are home anyway (lights on, nobody home?)

I once went to a course for my job at the Post and the man who was giving the course was listening closely to my conversation with other people around the table to see if I watched TV - I was young and didn't have a Billag licence.. .It can go quite far!

I heard on the radio today that soon everyone will have to pay, TV or not, but that they will reduce it to CHF 400/year.

Tom

Here's a link in French http://www.24heures.ch/suisse/redevance-radiotv-confirmee/story/17798578
I'm assuming you can find the story in all the newspapers today.

Since when did television become an essential part of life?

Next you'll be asking me to fund your pole-dancing club visits.

Essential enough that it can not be sold for cash during a bankruptcy process.