Abolishing the dog tax
Act repealing the Dog Tax Act
The Dog Tax Act will be repealed. Municipalities will no longer be able to impose or collect dog tax from dog owners.
- Status
- Passed
- Submitted
- 12 Apr 2018
- Latest event
- 21 May 2018
- Votes
- 0
- Speeches
- 6
- Confirmed
- 1 Jun 2018
- Statute
- 421/2018
- Source
- eduskunta.fi ↗
What is proposed
The Dog Tax Act will be repealed in its entirety, removing municipalities' right to levy dog tax and their obligation to maintain a related notification and monitoring system.
What it means
The change has no immediate financial or administrative impacts, as all municipalities had already abandoned collecting the tax. Most recently, Helsinki (50 euros) and Tampere (34 euros) levied dog tax in 2017.
How Parliament voted
The bill passed without a vote – no MP proposed rejecting or amending it in plenary.
Debate in the chamber
What was argued and where each group stood, followed by MPs' speeches verbatim from the parliamentary record. Speeches are shown in their original language.
6 speeches · 4 speakers · 2 debates
Key points of the debate
Parliament considered repealing the dog tax, as municipalities had already abandoned its collection and monitoring the tax had been perceived as difficult and bureaucratic. The debate was completely unanimous, with both government and opposition parties supporting the removal of the tax, considered obsolete, from legislation.
- Centre PartyIn favour
The Centre Party supported repealing the Dog Tax Act because there were no longer grounds for the tax, monitoring it was difficult, and the bureaucracy was disproportionate.
”Koiraverolain voimassaololle ei enää ole järkeviä perusteita.”
— Esko Kiviranta - Social DemocratsIn favour
The Social Democrats supported the proposal and considered abandoning the obsolete tax to be good deregulation.
”Siinä mielessä voi hyvin lämpimästi kannattaa sitä, että se myös lainsäädännöstä poistuu.”
— Tarja Filatov
This digest was generated by AI from 6 speeches 13 Sep 2026. Group positions are read from the speeches, not from votes; quotations were checked verbatim against the record.
Keskustelu päättyi. Asia lähetettiin valtiovarainvaliokuntaan.
Yleiskeskustelu päättyi. Eduskunta hyväksyi hallituksen esitykseen HE 39/2018 vp sisältyvän lakiehdotuksen sisällön mietinnön mukaisena. Lakiehdotuksen ensimmäinen käsittely päättyi.
Stages of consideration
The bill's path from the preliminary debate to the decision, as recorded by Parliament.
- 12 Apr 2018Eduskuntakäsittelyn vireilletulo · Valtiovarainministeriö
- 17 Apr 2018Lähetekeskustelu · Täysistunto
- 27 Apr 2018Valiokunnan mietintö tai lausunto · valtiovarainvaliokunta
- 9 May 2018Ensimmäinen käsittely · Täysistunto
- 15 May 2018Toinen käsittely · Täysistunto
- 18 May 2018Eduskunnan vastaus ja kirjelmä
Decisions by law proposal1
- 1Laki koiraverosta annetun lain kumoamisestaHyväksytty · 421/2018 · 1 Jun 2018
Proposed law text
The law proposals in the bill as the Government presented them. The final act may differ after committee consideration.
The law text is shown in Finnish or Swedish from Parliament's official documents; it is not translated into English.
Laki koiraverosta annetun lain kumoamisesta
Eduskunnan päätöksen mukaisesti:
1 §
Tällä lailla kumotaan koiraverosta annettu laki (590/1979).
2 §
Tämä laki tulee voimaan päivänä kuuta 20 .
Main content of the bill (official)
The summary and title were produced with AI on 13 Sep 2026. They are not official documents – check the details in the original bill. The title and summaries are machine translations of the Finnish AI summaries. Speeches and quotations are always shown in their original language.