On the TV Tax

I noticed a short piece by ARD (German commercial TV, Channel One) today....on the TV tax business.

The German Supreme Court system had a case handed to it.  Some folks, who own a second house, or second apartment/condo....were upset about having to pay the TV twice (one for each residence)....so they sued the government.  What the court came to say....by the law....it was totally legal to go after the tv tax for the 2nd residence.

What you find in Germany, to a small degree....are people who have taken up employment (mostly for a promotion or higher pay) and they'd like to keep their current dream home.  So they pack up on a Monday morning, and drive two to three hours to their job, and stay there until Friday night.....at some second residence (maybe they rent....maybe they own).  Then they return home.

Most will point out that they can only be at one location. But the tax is written in a way to say that if you own two houses....you pay the tv tax twice.

What if you didn't have a radio or TV at the second location?  Well....they constructed the tv tax to cover media only....so you would likely have a computer, and thus you'd have connectivity to reach the public tv options. 

At some point, I expect the AfD Party to pick up this topic and select an opposing alternate position....probably to massively downsize public TV and maybe eliminate either ARD or ZDF (more likely to be ZDF out of Mainz).

Among the youth of Germany (age 15 to 25)....this whole public tv tax thing is a continual topic and most don't see a reason to continue support for it.  Its just a matter of time before this becomes a topic ten subject, and falls into a campaign season.