German authorities plan electronic income-tax card

by Rick Perera

January 24, 2002 —

German residents could eventually be able to complete annual income-tax declarations entirely online, thanks to a pilot project being planned in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

The project, expected to run next year, seeks to develop an electronic tax card allowing employees' annual salary data to be transmitted directly to tax authorities, said a spokesman for the NRW Finance Ministry, who asked not to be named.

Until now, a taxpayer has had to turn in a paper tax card once a year to his or her employer, who enters salary information and returns it to the employee. The taxpayer then sends the card to tax authorities when completing an annual return.

The new technology, being developed internally by the ministry's computing center, would build on an existing national pilot program called ELSTER (Elektronische Steuererkl

IDG News Service