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Moving is stressful and involves a lot of work.

This not only applies to those who change their place of residence, but also to the responsible tax office.

Because it is not always possible to move tax data digitally in Germany in 2020.

If the taxpayer moves from one state to another, a process is still set in motion that sounds like a coup d'état.

Actually, everything could be so simple: For years, almost all citizens who are required to file a tax return have had to submit their details electronically via the nationwide portal "Elster".

The data is therefore available in digital form in almost all cases.

It should therefore be easy to forward it from the tax office at your previous place of residence to the authority of the new federal state.

Instead, tax returns that have not yet been processed are printed out on paper by the previous tax office and sent by post to the future tax office, where they are then digitally recorded again.

"Currently only on paper"

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All 16 federal states confirm to WELT AM SONNTAG that this procedure must also be used with them if citizens move to another country and their tax return has not yet been processed.

"Due to different technical requirements in the countries, certain data cannot yet be passed on electronically," says the Bavarian State Tax Office, for example.

"The procedure described currently applies equally to a move between all federal states."

In Saxony, too, one confirms: “The forwarding of the data from the tax return, which has not yet been finally processed, to a tax office in another federal state can currently only be done on paper.

An electronic transmission of the electronically available data of a tax return is currently not supported by the IT process used. "

After all, it is now usually possible to electronically transmit “the inventory data of a tax case” to the new tax office, according to all federal states.

This includes, for example, the data from previous tax assessments and the taxes already paid.

The digitization project has been running since 2007

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However, this does not apply to the current tax return - and in many cases it ends up at the old tax office.

Because if you move, you have to submit the declaration to the previously responsible authority, only then will the case be handed over to the new tax office and a new tax number will usually be set there.

Although there is a nationwide uniform identification number for every taxpayer, the individual tax offices then assign another individual tax number.

In order to finally enable a completely digital transmission of all data, the federal states started the "KONSENS" project in 2007.

The abbreviation stands for "coordinated new software development of the tax administration".

However, even 13 years later, the project has not yet been completed, as the printed tax returns for relocations show.

A culprit has been identified in Bavaria for this.

Actually, the federal states had apparently coordinated their answers to WELT AM SONNTAG in advance, and the explanations were often identical to the point.

But the Free State of Bavaria, governed by Markus Söder (CSU), differs: "The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is responsible for realizing a fully automatic exchange of tax data between the tax authorities of the states in the event of a move," said the Bavarian State Tax Office.

Ironically, the country ruled by Armin Laschet (CDU) has not yet delivered its part.

1.1 million Germans change federal states every year

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How many tax returns are printed out each year across Germany and then digitized again is not recorded.

Bavaria is the only state to announce that it took over around 12,000 tax cases from other federal states last year.

Given the 4.5 million cases processed in the Free State, that is not much.

But in the whole of Germany, a six-digit number of tax returns is likely to be made that are sent by post across the country.

According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, almost 1.1 million Germans move from one federal state to another every year.

In the face of such procedures, German tax offices are proud of small digital achievements: “Tax returns submitted electronically that are not submitted to another federal state are of course processed completely digitally,” said the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Finance.

The survey with the authorities shows that it is not that natural.

This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.

We will be happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.

Source: Welt am Sonntag