(2021) New free text field - What it means!

In the income tax return 2021 you will encounter a new free text field with a curious message in the main form: "In addition to the information in the tax return, further or different information or circumstances must be taken into account. These are set out in the attached document marked 'Supplementary information on the tax return'." What does this mean?

As tax returns are increasingly processed automatically, the tax authorities want to give you the opportunity to provide individual information in this free text field that, in your opinion, should prompt manual processing and review by the tax officer. To do this, enter a "1" in the selection field and provide your explanations on a supplementary sheet for information and circumstances that do not fit in the form, as well as your legal opinion that differs from the official view.

Label the document as "Supplementary information on the tax return", and it will then become an integral part of the tax return. This ensures that your tax return is not processed automatically, but is manually reviewed by the tax officer.

To clarify this, the form contains the following note:

"If further or different information or circumstances are to be taken into account in addition to the information in the tax return, please enter a '1'. The same applies if a legal opinion differing from the administrative view has been deliberately applied to the information recorded in the tax return."

If you prepare your income tax return with Lohnsteuer kompakt , you can enter your differing information, circumstances or legal opinion differing from the administrative view here. The content of this text field will be electronically transmitted to the tax authorities along with the other data in the tax return.