To use ELSTER Transfer, you need an ELSTER organization account. This is an account with which you can register as an organization in Mein ELSTER.

Various forms of authentication are available for logging in. The certificate file is required to use ELSTER-Transfer. It is not possible to use ELSTER-Transfer with a security stick, a signature card or an ID card.

Once you have successfully logged in with your authority's organizational account, you can access the application forms for data exchange with the tax authorities.

A procedure involves certain types of data, the content and structure of which is agreed between the two data exchange partners. For example, the data collection of property tax information is a separate procedure, as is trade tax. Please note that you are not authorized to use all of the 70 or so procedures available. The ELSTER partner in your federal state will therefore check whether you are authorized to participate in the respective data exchange procedure once your application has been accepted. In order for you to be able to transfer data, your authority or the HKR manufacturers you have entrusted with this must be activated for data exchange by ELSTER.

You can find the service for exchanging data with the tax authorities in "My ELSTER" in the "Forms & services" section.

Please be sure to observe requirement 4 and only apply for procedures for which the technical requirements are met!

Supported procedures, listed by partner

Country-specific information and notes

Please note that the partners' data centers only provide raw data for data collection procedures, which must be prepared and processed using external software. Before using ELSTER transfer procedures, users must check (if necessary in cooperation with the software provider) whether the specialist procedure can process the electronically provided data. The data centers do not provide notices (or similar) as PDF or in other plain text formats! Please only apply for procedures for which the technical requirements are met!

Important:

One exception to this is procedural applications for data in accordance with the 2019 GrStRefG, as there is an obligation to collect the data electronically. The processing in the tax offices and the dispatch of the property tax base data for the participating municipalities began with the acceptance of declarations from July 1, 2022. This property tax base data is stored for up to 138 months after provision to the participating municipalities for initial collection. After the initial collection, the data can be downloaded again as often as required within 60 days(but at least until 31.12.2024).

In order to meet the different requirements of organizations, there is a solution for basic users and one for "power users":

• Convenient file transfer functions are offered in "Mein ELSTER" for occasional use with a small transfer volume. Additional software does not need to be installed for this user group. It is not possible to transfer documents to users' mailboxes.
• For large file exchanges, periodic data retrieval, offering interfaces for third-party programs, etc., the installation and use of the platform-independent ELSTER transfer application is provided. This is the recommended solution for standard and "power" Users. It can also be used to transfer documents to users' mailboxes.

In the overview, you can see which functions are offered by both applications and which are only offered by one of the two applications. It is important to note that Mein ELSTER is the only way to register for data exchange.