Thursday, October 1, 2009

Collectibles: Dog tax marks


Picture of dog tax marks in metal, these are not from our dogs.


Sweden is a land of peculiar taxes and tax relieves. And I´m not talking about the dogs called "tax" but tax to the state. Did you know that in Sweden we paid "dog tax" for dogs older than 3 months from 1923 to 1996? I have tax marks in metal from all our dogs, each dog had its own number and the city had to be named.

Utdrag ur lagen 1923:116 7 § 2 mom. Å erlagd hundskatt skall lämnas kvitto ävensom särskilt skattemärke, dock att kvitto icke erfordras då skatt erlägges genom insättning å uppbördsmyndighetens postgirokonto. Skattemärke skall vara tillverkat av plåt och lagom stort att fästas vid vanligt hundhalsband. Märket skall vara försett med kommunens namn, vederbörande årtal samt hundens nummer i hundskatteregistret.

Do you have any strange collectibles at home?

9 comments:

LS said...

Somewhere in my boxes I have a sand collection, but I haven't kept up with it. The sand is in small jars that used to contain bee serum they gave to bee-sting allergic patients at the hospital. I also collect reading experiences and food facts, but that is in my brain :)

EH said...

I dont think your brain is a suitable thing to collect, since there´s only one. But maybe somebody collects brains? I hope not. Your collection of sand I remember. But do you remember our collection of bones? O.S.S

LS said...

I think most people have brain collections of memories, but OK, it has to be more touchable objects in this context... but think, people collect countries they have visited, restaurants they have eaten, or bird species they have seen - these are also collections, don't you think?

Yes, what happened to all our bones? OSS was not some spy organisation, it was our little Osteological Skeleton Society, with three members, all siblings ;)

Chad Lebo said...

Were cats tax-free? If you could have trained your dog to purr and act aloof and slightly superior, perhaps you could have saved a few Krono.

LS said...

I am pretty sure cats where tax free, even if you had a tiger or two.

EH said...

Mr Lebo- I´m sure there where a lot of "cats" running around in Sweden in those days, (barking and growling!) I think paying dog tax was a bit like paying TV fee today. You don´t like to do it and it´s really up to your own conscience if you do or not. Of course they catch a few cheaters every year...
I´m a coward so we pay the TV fee. But I don´t like it.

EH said...

LS, I think the bones were returned to nature sometime in the 90´s. We never could figure out how to build or own "lemming". (Lämmel in swedish, small rodent living in the mountains).

LS said...

But they go around and check on the TV fee in Sweden, but did they check on the dog tax? Our brother just had a visitor from the government asking him if he had a TV, which he doesn't so there was a reason he hadn't paid, but they do go around and check. For the dogs, I have no idea.

(Funny thing here - 'tax' in Swedish is a dachshound!, so dog tax is like saying dog dog)

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