Office of National Statistics: TV Licence listed as an “indirect tax”…

Some of my friends object to my characterisation of the TV Licence — required by law to watch TV programmes “live” as “they are broadcast” in the UK — as a tax.

Well, the Office of National Statistics apparently shares my view: that the TV Licence is, indeed, a tax.

This link: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-333039 shows the ONS listing the TV Licence as an Indirect Tax:

The good folks over at The Freedom Association have launched an excellent campaign, Axe the TV Tax.  This campaign is quite timely given the BBC’s and the Commons’ proposals to recast the TV Licence into some kind of universal household levy — effectively a Web Tax, payable by everyone who wishes to access online content, whether it be “live” TV or Vine, Twitter, Facebook, websites or even email.