Steer
New Elster app to simplify tax returns
The tax return can also be made on the smartphone with the new Elster app. photo
© Monika Skolimowska/dpa
Not just digital, but also mobile: In the future, tax returns can also be made on smartphones. The federal and state governments developed the corresponding app together.
A new app for smartphones is intended to further simplify tax returns: According to information from the German Press Agency, the “MeinELSTER+” app will be launched on Tuesday and will then be available for download for iOS and Android devices. The application is intended to be a first step towards a fully digital tax return. It was developed and funded by the federal and state governments.
With the help of the app, for example, invoices for advertising expenses can be photographed and filed immediately after receipt. Text recognition software scans the receipts so that relevant values are extracted directly.
Users can also divide the receipts into categories. When creating the tax return, only the relevant documents are displayed when linking to an input field. For this year, the possible use of artificial intelligence is being examined, which will make the scanned documents even more user-friendly.
Parallel to the new app, the “Elster Secure” app is still available, which is intended to simplify the use of the Elster certificate for secure registration in the program.