The increase in the broadcasting fee to EUR 18.36 per month has hardly been digested when new adversity is looming from the contribution service of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio. Because the GEZ successor compares the registration data again. If you don't answer, you may have to pay twice.
For the third time in ten years, the contribution service of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio is comparing the registration data of all adults in Germany. The aim is "to clarify which apartments have not yet paid a broadcasting fee," the facility said. Selected data from the residents' registration offices are compared with the inventory data. The comparison of registration data is regulated by law and is taking place for the third time after 2013 and 2018.
At the beginning of November, the contribution service again receives selected data from the residents' registration offices on all adult citizens. From January 10, 2023, the contribution service will then successively write to everyone who cannot be assigned an apartment that has been registered for the broadcasting contribution and ask for feedback.
The contribution service advises: "Those addressed should react promptly to the clarification letter and provide the contribution service with the necessary information about their own apartment. The quickest way to get in touch is online." Alternatively, the attached reply form can be completed and returned.
If the addressee reports back that a contribution has already been paid for the apartment and communicates the corresponding contribution number, their data will be deleted immediately. If you receive feedback that no contribution has been paid yet, you will be registered. "If the people who are written to don't respond to the letter, the contribution service automatically registers them, since it must be assumed that the broadcasting license fee has to be paid for their apartment," says the contribution service. And in this case, under certain circumstances, radio license fees would have to be paid twice.
Anyone who needs help in an individual case, for example with questions about exemption options, can reach the broadcasting fee advice service Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on 01806 999 555 10. The call costs EUR 0.20 from all German networks.
According to its own definition, the contribution service is a "non-incorporated administrative community of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio". It emerged in 2013 from the fee collection center of the public broadcasters (GEZ), which was responsible for collecting the broadcasting fee until the end of 2012.
The broadcasting fee is the most important source of income for ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio. In 2021, a good eight billion euros were raised. Around 90 percent of this money comes from private individuals. There have been many lawsuits in the past against the contribution and how it is to be paid, most of them unsuccessful.
