Dog Ownership - Register a Dog for Tax Purposes

• Keeper (Halterin or Halter) You keep the dog, meaning: the dog lives in your household. • Keeping a dog in Berlin • You keep the dog in your Berlin household. • You must register the dog for tax purposes even if you keep the dog commercially, for example for breeding or as a guard dog. • Deadline: tax registration within one month • after purchasing the dog, or • after your move to Berlin. • Deadline: tax registration within the first four months of life • if your dog is younger than three months.

• Tax registration of a dog Possible online or in writing (with a form). For the online registration: • You can complete your regulatory registration, which also counts as the tax registration, using the online platform Hunderegister Berlin (dog register) (under "Further information"). An additional registration with the Finanzamt (tax office) is then no longer required. • You can submit your tax registration using the tax online platform "Mein ELSTER". This requires a one-time registration with "Mein ELSTER". Alternatively, you can register without registration using the activated online identification function (eID) of your Personalausweis (identity card). For the written registration: • You can complete your regulatory registration, which also counts as the tax registration, in writing or by telephone with the Hunderegister Berlin (dog register). An additional registration with the Finanzamt (tax office) is then no longer required. • You can send the tax form "Anmeldung eines Hundes" (registration of a dog) by post to your Finanzamt (tax office). Please do not forget to sign the form. If you are registering a dog for tax purposes for the first time, you do not need to enter a tax number on the form. In this case, the Finanzamt will assign you a tax number for keeping the dog. • For the collection of the dog tax: SEPA-Lastschriftmandat (SEPA direct debit mandate) (optional) • With the SEPA procedure, the Finanzamt automatically collects the tax from your account. You no longer need to take care of the payment. • Alternatively, you can also transfer the tax to the Finanzamt yourself.

• Steuerliche Anmeldung eines Hundes (tax registration of a dog) www.berlin.de/sen/finanzen/steuern/downloads/hundesteuer/hun • SEPA-Lastschriftmandat (SEPA direct debit mandate) (optional) www.berlin.de/sen/finanzen/steuern/downloads/sepa-mandat_be.

none

• Hundesteuergesetz (HuStG BE, Dog Tax Act) § 8 Abs. 1 gesetze.berlin.de/perma?j=HuStG_BE_!_8

until you receive a Steuerbescheid (tax assessment notice): approximately 4 weeks

• Questions and answers on dog tax in Berlin (Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen [Senate Department for Finance]) www.berlin.de/sen/finanzen/steuern/informationen-fuer-steuer • Information on Berlin's Hundegesetz (Dog Act) (Senatsverwaltung für Verbraucherschutz [Senate Department for Consumer Protection]) www.berlin.de/sen/verbraucherschutz/aufgaben/hundehaltung/be • Dog ownership - Register a dog in the Hunderegister (dog register) (service) service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/330785/ • Dog ownership - Register a dangerous dog (service) service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/326263/ • Dog ownership - Deregister a dog for tax purposes (service) service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/324161/ • Dog ownership - Apply for exemption from dog tax (service) service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/330628/ • Online-Ausweisfunktion (eID / online ID function) - Change / reset PIN (service) service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/329833/

• Normally: the Finanzamt (tax office) of your place of residence • If the dog is not kept by you personally, but for example by an association or a company: the Finanzamt (tax office) in whose area the dog is kept (known as the "Betriebsstätten-Finanzamt" — tax office of the place of business)