Advanced Television

Telefónica demands end to RTVE tax

February 18, 2019

From David Del Valle in Madrid

Spain’s Telefónica has requested that the 0.9 per cent telco tax it pays to finance public TV group RTVE is eliminated to put an end to a “discrimination” against telco companies.

According to Telefónica, Spanish telcos have paid €1.2 billion to RTVE in taxes over the last 10 years. Alvaro Rico, fiscal advisor at Telefónica said that the tax is “discriminatory, disproportionate and unfair.”

Annually, telcos provide 70 per cent of RTVE’s financial aids, according to Rico. The public TV group is financed by a mix of taxes paid by pay-TV and FTA commercial broadcasters and telcos and public subsidies, with no ad revenues since 2009.

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