What is The Cheese Tax?

The Cheese Tax is a 2023 TikTok song and trend in which dog owners hand their pets a bite of cheese whenever they open a bag or block, treating the bite as an owed 'tax'.

Where did The Cheese Tax come from?

The phrase was already on Twitter as early as May 2016, and TikToker @puppysongs turned it into a viral song on February 28th, 2023.

What does The Cheese Tax mean?

It means the small bite of cheese a dog expects from its owner during cheese-related cooking or snacking, framed as a running family bill.

How do you use The Cheese Tax?

Owners typically film their pet watching them open cheese, play the @puppysongs sound over the clip, and show the pet collecting its bite.

Is The Cheese Tax still popular?

The sound had over 13,200 attached videos within its first weeks in March 2023, and large Borzoi, cocker spaniel, and dachshund versions kept the trend running.

The Cheese Tax

2023viral videoclassic

Published October 27, 2026

The Cheese Tax is a TikTok song and trend where dog owners film their pets demanding a bite whenever cheese comes out of the fridge. @puppysongs released the original tune on February 28th, 2023, and within days thousands of owners duetted it with their own cheese-begging dogs, cats, and even birds2.

pet video memes tiktok sound trends dogs wholesome memes participatory video memes

Overview

The joke runs on a simple premise: any dog in earshot of a cheese bag opening is owed a cut, and refusing to pay means getting stared down by a hungry pet2. Videos set to the @puppysongs track usually show an owner pulling shredded cheese from the fridge while the dog sits at attention, mouth open, and gets its small toll handed over on camera4. The tone is wholesome rather than ironic, and the appeal rests on how seriously the dogs treat the exchange.

TikTok

Big fluffy breeds like Borzois became a signature of the trend because their long faces make the begging look even more dramatic3. Owners also swapped in cats, dachshunds, cocker spaniels, and other animals paying their own version of the tax, keeping the format flexible while the song stayed the same6. Earlier text-only versions of the joke on Twitter used the exact phrase 'cheese tax' to describe the same ritual, so the TikTok song gave an existing dog-owner inside joke a shared soundtrack5.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter (early joke) / TikTok (viral spread)

Key People

@puppysongs, with earlier Twitter usage

Date

2023

The phrase 'cheese tax' was already circulating among dog owners on Twitter years before TikTok picked it up, with early uses dating back to May 20161. On March 5th, 2022, Twitter user @NeilSausage posted a short clip of his dachshund collecting its share with the caption, 'Hoosis cheese tax is right on time,' and the tweet gathered over 380 likes across the following year5.

The viral TikTok wave started with @esperborzoi, who on January 30th, 2023 posted a Borzoi video overlaid with the line, 'Everyone wants a borzoi until they get the cheese tax bill…' and reached around 674,100 plays over two months3. @puppysongs then turned the concept into an original song on February 28th, 2023, with the track getting roughly 11.6 million plays and 1.6 million likes in ten days4.

How It Spread

After @esperborzoi's January 2023 Borzoi clip pushed the Cheese Tax idea back into feeds, @puppysongs released the song version on February 28th, 2023 and gave the trend a reusable audio track3 4. Within days the sound had thousands of attached videos, and the plays on the original climbed into the millions over the first week and a half2.

Other creators took the song and ran it with their own dogs. On March 2nd, 2023, @lottiethecocker0 posted a cocker spaniel version that reached roughly 3.7 million plays and 279,600 likes in eight days6. Four days later, on March 6th, 2023, @dittawiggles posted the biggest early entry of the trend, pulling in about 14.1 million plays and 2.4 million likes in four days7. By mid-March the @puppysongs sound was attached to over 13,200 videos, with cats and other pets paying the tax alongside dogs2.

Timeline

2016-05-14

Early written use of 'cheese tax' about dogs appears on Twitter, well before the song exists[1].

2022-03-05

@NeilSausage tweets a dachshund paying its 'cheese tax,' a widely shared pre-TikTok example of the phrase[5].

2023-01-30

@esperborzoi posts a Borzoi clip joking about the 'cheese tax bill,' passing 674,100 plays over two months[3].

2023-02-28

@puppysongs releases the original Cheese Tax song on TikTok, reaching 11.6 million plays within ten days[4].

2023-03-02

@lottiethecocker0 posts a cocker spaniel version to the song, reaching 3.7 million plays in eight days[6].

2023-03-06

@dittawiggles posts the most-watched early Cheese Tax video, hitting about 14.1 million plays in four days[7].

TikTok

How to Use This Meme

A typical Cheese Tax post uses the @puppysongs sound and shows the dog waiting as the owner opens a bag of shredded cheese or slices a block4. People commonly film in the kitchen in one unbroken shot, hand over a pinch of cheese on the beat, and add a short caption naming the pet or the breed. Cats, puppies, and non-cheese snacks also work, as long as the 'tax' framing is clear6.