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Comment by jgrahamc | Hacker News Reader

There's a fairly easy way out of the tax. Don't have a TV in the UK. You then don't have to pay it but you can still enjoy the BBC.

Specifically, you can use all their services including the iPlayer as long as you don't use the iPlayer to watch a program as it's being broadcast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/01/iplayer_does_...

I don't have a TV and I live in the UK and the licensing people are aware of this. I do have broadband at home. At first I thought I would watch TV via the iPlayer, but it turns out that I've watched a grand total of one program in the last four months.

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I have heard that you have to jump through some pretty annoying hoops to prove that you don't have a TV. Since the government just assumes that you actually have one and just don't want to pay.

You have to jump through hoops to convince them you don't have a TV, and they'll keep sending you letters asking for money. But, if you don't have a TV, just don't pay. They never force you to pay, and the onus is on them (I believe) to demonstrate you have a TV before they fine you.

Not really...

They send you a letter asking you to pay and you send it back saying you don't have a TV. That's all I had to do.

They'll probably ask me again in a few years, I suppose.

When I returned to the UK I simply wrote the TV licensing authority a letter telling them I didn't have a TV. They replied with a menacing letter claiming that I probably didn't realize that I did have a TV somewhere hidden in the house (in the form of some sort of TV receiver).

They then sent me that letter again. I guess the first letter was meant to scare me into paying under the assumption that I had lied.

Then they sent me a letter saying that they would pop round at any time of their choosing and check up on me. They have not yet done so, and if they do they are not coming in. It's a private property and they'll have to get a search warrant (which means going to a magistrate) if they think I'm watching TV.

Dear Householder,

Our records show that no one living at your address has purchased anything from Foo Department Stores during the past year. Since 99.9% of the UK population buys at least one item each year from us, you must have stolen something from us.

To pay for the item you have stolen ... .

Otherwise we will have to come and search your house to discover what you have stolen from us.

Yours,

Foo Department Stores.

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