When you make a relocation to London, you’ll readily discover there might be different taxes you have to pay in the UK than you’ve had to deal with before. It goes without saying that the UK has its own income tax structure that includes contributions to NHS, etc., but the ones that usually catch expats moving to London by surprise are council tax and TV license. Today, I’ll explain the latter… [read more]
If you are moving to London, expect to pay a licence fee to watch public broadcasting on the TV. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) provides television programming, radio and internet services across England and uses the funds from licence fees to keep it in business. While other networks and media companies raise their revenues through advertising, the BBC differs in that it relies entirely on funds collected from licence fees.
Television in England is very different from television programming in the States or Canada, and if you are moving to London then you will want to get set up as soon as possible. One of the first aspects of television viewing in London is that you’ll have to pay a television licence for the privilege of watching the TV. This licence fee is the way that the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) finds the funding for all of their programming, which is among the best in the world. The company is completely reliant on this fee, and does not have any paid advertising during their programming which means uninterrupted viewing. The fee is payable per year and will cost you £142.50 which is a small sum compared with the cost of cable or pay-per-view channels.