Rundfunkbeitrag official procedures

€18.36 a month per dwelling – unchanged since August 2021, and set not by a state treaty but by the Federal Constitutional Court (order of 20 July 2021). On where things currently stand: the KEF had recommended, in its 24th report (February 2024), an increase to €18.94 from 2025; the heads of government of the federal states decided in December 2024 to keep the amount unchanged “for a period of two years”. The constitutional complaints lodged by ARD and ZDF against this (1 BvR 2524/24, 1 BvR 2525/24) were the subject of oral proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court on 23 June 2026; a decision is still pending. The 25th KEF report of February 2026 now recommends €18.64 from 1 January 2027 – but a recommendation is not yet law.

Recipients of Grundsicherungsgeld (formerly Bürgergeld), assistance with living expenses, basic income support in old age and in the event of reduced earning capacity, BAföG, benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act, as well as deafblind persons and recipients of assistance for the blind. A quirk of the statutory text causes confusion: § 4 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 RBStV still refers to “Arbeitslosengeld II” – the state treaty has not kept pace with the renaming within SGB II. This has no effect on entitlement; the Beitragsservice records the benefit as exemption ground 403 c. Important: an exemption is never automatic, but is granted only on application – retroactively for up to three years. And anyone who narrowly misses out on a social benefit, that is, by less than €18.36, has an express case-of-hardship ground under § 4 Abs. 6.

Not if you apply for the exemption. The Federal Constitutional Court declared the double payment unconstitutional on 18 July 2018; since then, § 4a RBStV has provided for an exemption for secondary residences – but only on application. Two points are frequently misunderstood: the three months are not a cut-off period, but only decide the retroactive effect – anyone who applies later is exempted from the month of application onward and still saves €220.32 a year. And a person is entitled to apply even if they do not themselves pay for the principal residence: it is enough that “they themselves, their spouse or their registered civil partner” pay the contribution for it.

No – the Rundfunkbeitrag is not a contract, but a public-law charge; there is nothing to cancel. An Abmeldung is the notification of a fact and requires a recognised reason: giving up the dwelling, moving in with a person who already pays, moving abroad, moving into a care facility, or death. The decisive factor here is the most costly sentence in the whole state treaty: under § 7 Abs. 2 RBStV, the obligation to pay ends “however, not before the end of the month in which this … was notified”. Anyone who moves out in January and notifies in June pays up to June – lawfully, and this cannot subsequently be corrected with the tenancy agreement either.

The process proceeds in stages: a four-week payment period → assessment notice (Festsetzungsbescheid) with a late-payment penalty → payment reminder → enforcement under § 10 Abs. 6 RBStV, usually as an attachment of a bank account or wages. Under § 11 of the contribution by-law, the late-payment penalty amounts to 1% of the outstanding contribution debt, at least €8.00, and is set only once per notice. There are two things you should do early: arrange an instalment payment before enforcement begins – once an attachment is under way, this is no longer possible – and have it checked whether a retroactive exemption might apply, which often clears the arrears entirely. Also note that, once the notice becomes final, the limitation period is extended under § 53 Abs. 2 VwVfG from three to 30 years.