"The next thing is the pet tax. As of next month, it will be completely abolished."

"That will please me personally, since I have a dog myself. So from next month, he won't have to wear a tag and I won't have to buy a new one?"

"Yes, that's over. If your pet has a tax tag, you can honestly throw it away straight away. It won't be checked during this month."

"Aren't you worried that the abolition of this tax will lead to an increase in pet ownership?"

"No, I don't. The tax may have been introduced to restrict animal keeping, but it doesn't work in the slightest. As you say, you still have a dog."

"I personally do, but not everyone who might have one."

"Who wouldn't?"

"Someone for whom the tax would be a burden, certainly. Hate me, but I earn above average."

"You got that right, it only affects people with low incomes. Do you think that's fair?"

"No, probably not. Is that why you want to abolish the tax?"

"The tax is the same nominal amount for everyone, but the burden is individual for everyone. If the aim is to limit animal ownership, why should someone who earns more be allowed to keep an animal rather than someone who earns less? If you wanted to levy a functioning pet tax, it would have to be a percentage of income, but in any case it remains too burdensome for me and it can hardly be controlled. The authorities are already commissioning external investigators. After all, it is very easy to avoid the tax. You can always keep your pet on your property, keep it inside your own home or just let it out on its own. Are the investigators then supposed to chase after it until it returns home of its own accord? You chase after pocket change. The revenue is ridiculous in relation to the effort for citizens and authorities. The tax is unfair and does not achieve the intended effect, and at the same time commercial ownership is also exempt. In other words, on one corner an investigator is crawling through the city looking for dogs by their tags, while the breeder next door sells 8,000 puppies every year and then the community wonders where all the dogs come from. So the whole thing is quite nonsense. Meanwhile, the older animals are all in shelters. If you want to have a pet, please get one from there. After a year without being adopted, they are put down."

"In relation to the country's total tax revenue, the pet tax revenue is certainly rather low, but isn't it still important revenue for the municipalities?"

"It's not even a billion and easily a quarter of that is collection costs. No, that's not important revenue. I would be happy to replace that amount from other taxes."

"So the municipalities don't need to worry?"

"No, they don't need to. There will also be a replacement for the pet tax. A new young animal tax of 40% on turnover will be levied on the trade in pets, in addition to sales tax, provided the animal is still in the first third of its life expectancy. Breeding will also be limited depending on the species and banned for crippled animals. There are more than enough animals with natural cuteness, please keep breeding them instead of ones that can't even breathe properly. The conditions will be sent to the companies by the authorities. The municipalities are then financed from this young animal tax. Let's move on to the next point. With the abolition of the pet tax, all deductions for this will also be abolished from next year. So you will no longer be able to deduct the haircut for your dog, for example."

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"To be honest, I didn't even know that was possible. I can take my dog to a hairdresser and then deduct the bill from my taxes?"

"No, not that, but you can have the hairdresser come to you and then deduct his travel expenses as well. So it only works if it's done at your place."

"Ahaha." The man laughed out of surprise, but quickly regained his composure. "I'm sorry. You just said it so dryly. Is that really the case?"

"Have you not read your municipality's tax book? You are actually supposed to have read it. That's what it says. If you take your dog to a hairdresser, it's your private pleasure, but if he comes to you, it's a household-related service and can of course be deducted."

"I didn't know that. I also don't think that anyone who isn't a tax consultant has ever read their local council tax book."

"As citizens, it is one of your duties to know your rights and obligations. The constitution, the tax books and the penal codes - at least these should be read once by every citizen. You are expected to do that. How else are you supposed to abide them if you don't know what's written in them?"

"I'll have a look at it. It's just a lot. Um... Does the abolition of the deductions also apply to people who need a guide dog?"

"Yes, it's also being abolished for these people."

"But that's not fair, is it?"

"At the moment, our tax system is reasonably fair as long as you have a good tax advisor who knows all the rules, but is not so good that he also knows the loopholes. What I want to say is that it seems reasonably fair because everything is worked out in detail and there are separate exceptions for every eventuality, but if it is so complicated that you as an ordinary citizen need a tax advisor because you can't explain yourself what tax responsibilities you have as a citizen, then it can't be fair. It is also understandable how it came to be like this. They didn't dare to raise one of the big taxes and therefore created a new small tax that doesn't attract so much attention. Someone feels, perhaps justifiably, that they are being treated unfairly and has sufficient negotiating power, so an exception is made for them, but someone else feels, perhaps justifiably, that they are being treated unfairly, so another exception has to be made and it goes on and on. It's better to just change one of the big taxes straight away, then you save yourself the rest. All these little regulations that you have thought about have to be understood, then measured, then noted down, then checked and documented. The authorities process endless amounts of paper. It is an enormous bureaucratic effort. All so that the state can wring a few percent more tax out of its citizens. So let's move on to the biggest change, which is one of the main goals of all the changes: debureaucratization."

Marah continued to flip through her file. The man was waiting. It seemed he didn't want to ask any more questions about the young animal tax.

Some dog races already had almost fundamental physical impairments due to breeding, so breeding would be restricted or banned depending on the race and ownership would be restricted or banned depending on the race as well. For some races, this meant a ban on private ownership without a special permit. For a few races, this would mean compulsory sterilization. The races affected would include some that did not actually have any physical limitations, or at least none worth mentioning, but which nevertheless often had to be euthanized for other reasons. The changes would come into force along with more interesting changes mentioned today and not too many people were interested in the subject. Many of the races affected were combat dogs.

None of the races would die out. Baele was not the only country in the world. Breeding would move abroad. That was already happening anyway, because there were fewer regulations in other countries and because other countries needed combat dogs more. In Hypos there was state-run breeding. In Tor the breeding of certain breeds was even subsidized by the state.

.../ End Part