Notification to the tax office: What it means!

In the electronic income tax return for the year 2025, there is a free text field "Message to the tax office". You may be confused about the following message:

"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 provide an opportunity to make individual statements that should prompt manual processing and review by a tax officer. In the official form, this section is called "Supplementary information on the tax return".

In the additional text field, you have the opportunity to briefly explain certain matters to the tax office that go beyond the information already provided in your tax return or to consider different information or circumstances. You can also indicate that you have a different legal opinion on a particular matter in your tax return than the official one. Your message to the tax office thus becomes part of your tax return.

If you prepare your income tax return with Lohnsteuer kompakt, you have the option to enter your differing information, circumstances, or legal opinion in this text field. The content of this text field is transmitted electronically to the tax authorities along with the other data in the tax return.

By sending a message to the tax office, you ensure that your tax return is not processed automatically, but that it is manually reviewed by a 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 '1'. The same applies if a legal opinion differing from the administrative opinion has been deliberately applied to the information recorded in the tax return. If you are only submitting documents and statements with the tax return, no entry is required."

If you want the tax officer to review your tax return more closely, you should make entries here. If you do not wish this, leave the field blank. However, please note that you should not make an entry here if you are only submitting documents and statements with your tax return.