The previous legal hardship regulation remains in place: To avoid "unreasonable hardship", the tax office may allow the tax return to be submitted to the tax office using the official paper form (§ 25 para. 4 sentence 2 EStG; § 13a para. 3 EStG; § 18 para. 3 sentence 3 UStG; § 14a sentence 2 GewStG). In addition to the individual legal regulations, the Fiscal Code contains a general hardship regulation (§ 150 para. 8 AO): The tax office can waive electronic data submission if it is economically or personally unreasonable for the taxpayer.

This is particularly the case if the taxpayer does not have the necessary technical equipment and creating the technical means for remote data transmission of the officially required data set would only be possible with significant financial effort, or if the taxpayer is not or only partially able to use the remote data transmission options due to their individual knowledge and skills. However, tax offices are increasingly handling this more restrictively!

Note: If you do not fulfil your obligation to submit the "Appendix EÜR", the tax office may threaten and impose a penalty (§ 328 AO). However, the tax office may not charge a late fee because the "Appendix EÜR" is not part of the tax return (OFD Rheinland of 21.2.2006, S 2500-1000-St 1).

The "Appendix EÜR" requires numerous detailed entries on income and expenses in a strictly formal manner. Completing the now four pages with over 100 lines requires a lot of additional work and knowledge - and often further costs for professional advice and support.