What is data retrieval?

Data retrieval is a service offered by Lohnsteuer kompakt. Through data retrieval, you can access personal data stored about you at your tax office and import it directly into your tax return.

Note: Data can only be requested for the last 4 tax years, i.e. in the year 2026 you can retrieve data for 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022.

Once data retrieval has been activated, the tax authorities usually provide your data within 48 hours. We will inform you by email as soon as the data is available. You can then import all data into your tax case via the "My tax return" page. If your tax office provides new data for you, we will automatically notify you in the future.

The following stored data about you is provided by the tax authorities as part of the so-called "pre-filled tax return" (VaSt):

• Master data of the tax account holder, including name, address, date of birth, tax identification number and bank details
• Information on religious affiliation
• Wage tax statements submitted by the employer
• Pension receipt notifications for benefits from statutory pension insurance, private pension insurance or retirement contracts
• Insurance contribution certificates - particularly for paid and refunded contributions to health and long-term care insurance
• Retirement provision expenses
• Contributions to basic provision (Rürup pension)
• Contributions to Riester pension
• Certificates for wage replacement benefits such as unemployment, parental or sickness benefit

The data scope is to be gradually expanded in the coming years. It is planned to collect further electronic data in the future and make it available to taxpayers for data retrieval. This includes, among others:

• Capital-forming benefits
• Parts of Annex V (e.g. standard value file reference, location of the property)
• Donation receipts
• Degree of disability

The legal basis for this was created in 2016 with the Act to Modernise Taxation Procedures.

With data retrieval, the information mentioned can be displayed and also automatically transferred to your income tax return. Even if you retrieve and transfer electronic data, all entries can still be manually changed and corrected if necessary.

Important: If you make changes because you believe the tax office has incorrect or outdated data, you should also provide proof of the change to the tax authorities. Otherwise, the changes you made are very likely to be deleted to your disadvantage.

Once you have activated data retrieval in Lohnsteuer kompakt, the tax return can be submitted immediately. For this purpose, the master data of the tax account holder (including name, address, date of birth, tax identification number) stored by the tax authorities is checked against the information in the tax return for identification.