Online submission with your own certificate

When submitting online with your own certificate, Lohnsteuer kompakt transfers your tax data directly to the tax authorities via the so-called ELSTER interface using a secure SSL connection. As the tax data is processed electronically within the administration, a simplified tax return is provided, meaning you need to submit significantly fewer documents to your tax office than with a conventional tax return.

For a paperless submission with your own certificate (authenticated submission), you need a free certificate from the tax authorities. This certificate enables secure authentication of the submitted tax return, so you no longer need to send an additional signed printout. You can only apply for the certificate for authenticated submission on the website www.elster.de.

At the end of the data transfer to the tax office, a receipt confirmation and the compressed tax return will be displayed as a PDF file for your records. The receipt confirmation acknowledges the receipt of your data on the tax office's servers. The compressed tax return contains all your tax data that was transferred to the tax office over the Internet.

When submitting online with your personal certificate, you may still need to submit mandatory documents by post.