How does data retrieval assist with online tax returns?

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. The tax authorities also refer to the data provided as the "pre-filled tax return" (VaSt). (More information at: What is data retrieval?)

Once you have activated data retrieval in Lohnsteuer kompakt, you can immediately use the online submission for your tax return. The master data of the tax account holder (e.g. name, address, date of birth, tax identification number) stored by the tax authorities is checked against the information in the tax return for identification purposes.

Additionally, the data provided can be transferred to your income tax return in Lohnsteuer kompakt with just a few clicks. You do not need to enter the data yourself, and many fields are automatically filled with the correct values from the data retrieval, thus largely avoiding input errors. You only need to check the transferred data for accuracy.