Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The dog tax flushes more money into municipal coffers than ever before. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the payments in the first nine months of 2022 totaled 104.6 million euros and thus to a new high, the State Statistical Office announced on Wednesday in Düsseldorf. That was 2.5 million euros or 2.4 percent more than in the same period of 2021. Compared to the first nine months of 2017, payments for dog tax grew by 13.6 million euros or 15 percent. The state office has shown a steady increase since 2015.
In the individual municipalities, the statisticians of the state office recently determined different developments in the dog tax. For example, dog tax payments in Ascheberg in the Coesfeld district rose by 74.8 percent compared to the first nine months of 2021. In the city of Velen in the Borken district, however, they fell by 69.4 percent. According to the amounts, the state office calculated a plus of 209,407 euros for Cologne, for Neunkirchen-Seelscheid in the Rhein-Sieg district a plus of 101,459 euros and for Düsseldorf 94,486 euros more.
According to the state office, the figures do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the number of animals taxed. Because each municipality sets the amount of this tax by means of dog tax statutes according to the number or the dangerousness of the animals themselves. The financial burden on dog owners varies greatly from region to region. The city of Ahlen waives the dog tax entirely if there is only one dog. In Moers, according to the current statutes, around 120 euros would be due for a dog. The amounts are usually payable quarterly, half-yearly or annually. On a national average, however, the dog tax accounts for only 0.2 percent of all payments to the municipalities.
