Digital documents and receipts that were initially uploaded to the ELSTER CLOUD or a commercial provider can be stored in My ELSTER when preparing the income tax return and assigned to a specific entry. The new "Referencing to receipts" ("RaBe" for short) function allows these receipts to be requested electronically by the tax office. "This is a further building block towards complete paperless communication with the tax authorities...", says Chief Finance President Dr. Bernd Kraft.

Tax office employees can retrieve the digitally linked documents electronically when processing income tax returns. The tax office can thus view the documents directly without any time interruption and without any additional effort for taxpayers or their tax advisors. Once the tax office has retrieved a document, ELSTER or the commercial software provider informs the taxpayer or their tax advisor digitally

The new "RaBe" procedure supplements the previous options of submitting receipts electronically or by post at the request of the tax authorities. The "RaBe" function can be used for the first time in My ELSTER or "RaBe-enabled" software products from other providers when submitting income tax returns for the 2023 assessment period and therefore also when preparing the 2024 income tax return

Income tax returns are so easy today - https://www.elster.de