
- Elster online lohnsteuer 2014 pdf#
- Elster online lohnsteuer 2014 password#
- Elster online lohnsteuer 2014 download#
I figure if the Finanzamt people come knocking at my door at some point in the future, I’ll just email them the number to a P.O. So my current plan is to just fill in as many boxes as I can. There’s probably a fine for “not filling in forms that you didn’t actually have to fill in but because you didn’t fill them in now you have to pay” or similar. However, this being Germany, I don’t want this to come back and bite me in the “amt” at some point in the future. Therefore, I’m not actually sure I have to file a tax report at all. As I only moved here in September, by the end of the tax year, I was nowhere near this figure. Now, the thing is that, in Germany, you can earn over €8,000 without paying any tax. So, I used the “translate” button at the top of the screen: WHAT?! About to pour myself a glass of wine to celebrate my ingenuity, I first decided to have a quick look at what lay ahead.
Elster online lohnsteuer 2014 pdf#
pdf form, which enabled me to access the system.
Elster online lohnsteuer 2014 download#
I was then able to download a security key in. I logged on to elster again and, without even looking at the leaflet this time, completed Step Two.

The people in the Finanzamt must be chuckling all the way to the bank. One week later, I received a rather flimsy paper envelope with the words “paperless and secure” emblazoned on it.
Elster online lohnsteuer 2014 password#
Now that you’ve completed Step One, you have to wait a week to receive a second password – by post. On to Step Two… oh no, wait, this is where the German part kicks in. I received a password by email, confirmed that I had received it, and Step One was complete. Following the step-by-step instructions (in German) in the leaflet, I was amazed to find that it actually was easy. The fairy tale castle where the Finanzamt people liveĮager to find out just how “easy” it was, I sat down that afternoon and tried to register. And off we went the whole procedure had taken under five minutes.

I asked her if it was easy and she assured me that it was. She didn’t add “like normal people” but I believe it was implied. After around thirty seconds, she handed us leaflets and told us to go online and register. We eventually got to the Finanzamt where we explained to the confused German lady what we wanted. Now they’re on strike indefinitely… (image from ) You might think that this makes us total numpties, but with the underground trains in seemingly permanent disarray, and the overground trains on strike more often than your average German ends a sentence with “oder…”, it was a pretty easy mistake to make. We chose a time, met up, and then spent around twenty minutes trying to find a replacement bus for a train service that was actually running.

Of course, the idea that you had to go to an office to get a PIN to use in an online system seemed to defy logic, but well, this is Germany so… Reliably informed by Sheila, the Half-Naked Aussie, that all we had to do was go to the Finanzamt and get a PIN number, I was confident that this was going to be a walk in the park. I keep telling you Germans have a sense of humour…

Yes, the Germans have created a lovely system, the rather ironically titled, “”, “Elster” meaning “magpie” – you know, the birds that love to steal your shiny things. The even funnier thing about all of this is that Germany has actually tried to simplify the process by allowing you to do your taxes online. (Just in case there was any doubt that I’m turning into a German.) I’d kept every receipt, every invoice, every pay slip, and even compiled them into neat spreadsheet documents, which I’d not only saved, but also printed out, paper clipped, labelled, slid into plastic pockets and put into specific folders. The funny thing about all of this is that I actually thought I was prepared. It’s the sound of new-to-Deutschland freelancers trying to figure out how, in the name of all that’s holy, they’re going to do their taxes by the 31st of May. If you listen carefully, you can probably hear a vague wailing sound coming from the general direction of Germany a sort of pained whine, interspersed with sobs of horror and confusion.
