Further to my last post: As part of the Kafka-esque bureaucracy in France, I am required roughly every two months to present myself at the local “Tresor Publique” to pay taxes, correct their forms, fills out new forms and try to convince them that despite our different last names, Amynah and I are actually married.
One of the more tiresome chores is the need to repeatedly explain to them that, as I do not own a television, I will not be paying the television tax (such a thing does exist here). Yet every once in a while, they’ll send me a new bill demanding that I pay it.
Today, I went up once more, planning on speaking in French so tortuous so as to make the inutility of my owning a television self-evident. However, on arrival they were closed, in sympathy for the greviste etudiants.
That’ll teach me to question the power of the student unions.
2 comments:
We had a "TV tax" in Japan, or, rather, it was a subscriber fee to NHK, the public broadcaster. It was ridiculously easy to get out of paying, however, or at least so I am told. They come by in person each month to collect the fee (a perfect example of Japanese efficiency), so if you're not there, you don't pay. I didn't have a TV, so I also didn't have to pay.
I apparently risk a home inspection when I claim to not have a TV, but it hasn't happened yet, probably because they refuse to listen to me and just re-charge the fee.
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