Annual accounts for livestock owners – livestock reports

Formular Tierbestandsmeldung

The year is over, the holidays as well … so, we livestock owners just have to finish 2016 with the tasks of checking our fences and making them winter proof as well as taking care of the annual bureaucracy and red-tape.

Besides the usual fiscal annual accounts, we have to transfer the numbers of our livestock to the animal databases by the end of the year. For this purpose, every federal state in Germany has its own responsible regional authority. On their websites, one can find out about the different regional regulations. For the required annual report, a registration form will be sent to all registered livestock keepers. If you have not received one, you should request it from the epizootic authorities. You can check here which animal owners are subject to report (at least for Baden-Wuerttemberg):

http://www.tsk-bw.de/Melde_Beitragspflicht/Wer_muss_melden.php

Late registrations are necessary if the number of animals has increased by more than 20% or by at least 10 animals after January 1st, and, of course, when new keeping of animals is begun or a livestock owner takes over animals from other owners. It does not matter whether the animals are used for farming or for recreational purposes – like riding horses. Furthermore, one should note that the owner is not necessarily subject to report, but the actual keeper of the animals. Thus, the obligation to notify also concerns the operators of equestrian centers and boarding kennels.

Owners of cattle are exempt from the annual report since their data has been registered in a German electronic database (HIT) since 1999. This database including origin and information, which was introduced by an EC regulation in all EU Member States, also covers the livestock reporting.

As you can see in the following example, the notification is very straightforward and done quickly. Here you can look up the authority of your federal state in Germany, which is responsible for the registration of your livestock report:

http://www.hi-tier.de/rs-adress.html