Determination of the tax identification number for the wage tax statement

The eTIN will be discontinued from 2023, which is why the Federal Ministry of Finance is providing information on how to determine an employee's tax identification number for the wage tax statement.

The Act on the Further Tax Promotion of Electromobility implemented the abolition of the electronic transfer identification number (eTIN) at the end of 2022. From the 2023 assessment period, it will therefore be mandatory to provide the employee's tax identification number for the electronic transmission of wage tax certificates. As these wage tax certificates must now be sent to the tax office, the Federal Ministry of Finance has provided information on what employers must do if they do not have the employee's tax identification number.

If the employer has submitted an income tax certificate for the employee for the year 2022 and the employer assures that the employment relationship has continued after the end of 2022 and the employee has not yet provided their identification number despite being requested to do so, the competent tax office will provide the employee's identification number upon informal written request from the employer. The request must include the employee's name, date of birth and address.

A breach of duty is also to be assumed if the employee does not comply with the request without justification. If the above-mentioned requirements are met, the tax office will also issue a notification if the employee is to be assigned an identification number for the first time. Authorization or consent by the employee is not required. Irrespective of this, the employer can generally request the allocation or notification of the employee's tax identification number from the competent tax office if the employee has authorized him to do so.

If the employee culpably fails to provide the employer with the tax identification number and the employer is unable to obtain it in the aforementioned manner, the employer must generally calculate the wage tax according to tax class VI. This applies in particular to

• Company pensioners and pension recipients who are resident abroad and who have been sent the documents for the issue of a tax identification number but have not yet applied for it,

• Employees - especially those from abroad - who are only employed by the employer for a short period of time and who have not yet provided the employer with their tax identification number,

• Payments to recipients of death benefits and

• Employees who refuse to provide their employer with their tax identification number.

Only in cases where the employee is not responsible for the lack of notification of the tax identification number or the employer is unable to retrieve the tax identification number due to technical faults can the employer use the expected tax class as a basis for calculating income tax for a maximum of three calendar months.