Responsible and proper maintenance of pets is always accompanied by rather large spending, in particular, when it comes to dogs. And if recently deputies have amended laws, and now pet owners are legally responsible for the maintenance and behavior of pets, then a new bill is under consideration. He has already managed to agitate all owners of dogs and concerns the introduction of a tax on their maintenance.
Why do you need a tax?
Such a fee for owning these pets should be introduced, according to officials, at the federal level. And she is by no means any kind of punishment. In fact, just the opposite. Many dog breeders are well aware of the fact that in our country dog infrastructure is very poorly developed, especially when it comes to small towns and villages. There are special dog playgrounds for walking, hairdressing and parks most often does not happen.
Here is the introduction of a tax on dog ownership and should correct this situation.
All the money raised will be earmarked and will be used to build and improve canine infrastructure, even in the most distant regions of our country.
The practice of such taxation has long been quite popular abroad and is used in many countries. However, the majority of Russians protest against the approval of such a bill in our country. And the majority are against such taxation only because they do not quite understand the essence of the new bill, and also because not all dog owners are sure that money will be spent where it should be.
Which countries exist?
In many countries of the world such a tax has long been introduced. And it concerns the payment of money once a year, not only for owning dogs, but also for other pets. Moreover, this list includes not only cats, but even such individuals as hamsters and parrots.
All animals are either registered or chipped, and information about them is entered into the single federal base of the country. Today, this practice is common in countries such as:
- Germany;
- Sweden;
- Switzerland;
- USA;
- Netherlands;
- Japan;
- Israel.
At the same time, it was in Germany and Sweden that the practice of such taxation appeared for the first time.
In some countries, there is both a progressive tax scale and the ability to have a dog at home, but without officially paying a penny for it. This applies, for example, when a dog was taken from a shelter and there are relevant documents confirming this fact.
In Spain, dog owners, regardless of their breed, pay 15 euros per animal to the country's treasury once a year. But if the pet was taken from a shelter for homeless animals and there are documents confirming this information, then the owner of the dog is exempt from paying the tax. It is absolutely unimportant whether he provided shelter to one or even several animals.
But in Holland, this tax is progressive. For one pet, its owner pays to the state treasury 57 euros per year, and for each subsequent already 85 euros per year. Residents of Sweden pay 100 euros per dog for each dog, but the Swiss pay twice as much.
On average, the amount of such tax can not exceed 300 units of national currency per animal per year.
If you carefully study the dog infrastructure in these countries, you can make sure that the money goes where it should be. There are special parks, grounds, and hairdressers, and even whole spas. At the same time just on the streets to see dog excrement or stray animals is almost impossible. Residents of all these countries and a number of others regard their pet tax as absolutely normal. Here for pets they strive to create the most comfortable conditions of existence, including psychological ones.
It is noteworthy that even in Ukraine there is some semblance of such a bill.
Here, the owners don’t pay fees for animals, but they keep strict state records of all stray dogs that are registered and sterilized.
Will it be introduced in Russia?
Until now, this burning question for many Russians remains open. Initially, it was said that the exact decision will be made until the middle of this year.
However, today the consideration of this bill is temporarily frozen.
There are several reasons for this. First, pension reform and many other new bills, which the officials had to consider first. And secondly, the total dissatisfaction of the owners of animals. And if the owners of 1-2 dogs still, perhaps, would be willing to pay the tax, then with the owners of entire nurseries things are much more complicated.
First, not all owners of these animals generally agree with the introduction of such a tax. According to them, they are already spending enough on keeping their dogs - proper nutrition, accessories, regular visits to the vet. Secondly, experts insist that even with all the desire, not all dog breeders will be able to pay this tax, which means that the number of abruptly homeless animals can quickly increase several times.
All these reasons in aggregate and led to the fact that the consideration and final decision on the adoption or rejection of this bill today is suspended.
Many experts believe that there are enough amendments concerning a more attentive and responsible attitude towards pets, but there is no point in introducing amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The costs of implementing such an idea will be several times higher than the potential income from its implementation.
So while the unequivocal decision on whether to pass a law on the introduction of taxation on dogs and other domestic animals, no.
Experts say that the situation will finally become clear no sooner than at the end of 2019. But with greater probability this bill will either be completely rejected, or else the size of the tax itself and the procedure for calculating it will undergo significant changes.
Features of taxation
But today, despite the fact that the bill is only under consideration, It highlights several key points.
- The amount of tax payments in the village and in the city will differ significantly even for dogs of the same breed.. The reason is simple - in villages and villages animals are most often kept in aviaries and on a leash. In addition, the villagers do not so much need a developed dog infrastructure, which means they use it less. City pets are more actively visiting public places and need specialized areas for walking. Based on the needs of the animals themselves and the preferences of their owners, it is planned to create a special calculator that will help calculate the amount of tax on an animal of a particular breed.
- The size of the dog and its dimensions will also be taken into account when calculating the amount payable. Therefore, owners of large dogs, such as alabai and shepherd dogs, will have to pay more than Pekingese owners. The amount of tax on particularly dangerous breeds of dogs will be two or three times higher than the standard.
- The tax will be federal, however its final amount will be determined by the subjects of the Federation independently.but within the limits of the established norms.
- The amount of tax owners of dogs will be paid once a year in full. Nursery owners and breeders will be able to split it into two payments for equal amounts of money.
But it is worth remembering that all these features today are only tentatively approved and it’s too early to say that all of them will be taken into account and entered into the draft law under consideration.
Despite the successful introduction of such a bill in other states in other states, independent experts of our country are still quite skeptical.
And their attitude is supported by many deputies, in particular, representatives of the LDPR party. In their opinion, ordinary citizens of Russia have too many material concerns and other taxes, and the funds are limited. Therefore, the new tax is just a bondage, from which many will voluntarily get rid of, abandoning pets.
In the following review, you will be able to observe a survey of dog owners on the subject of innovations in taxation.
