In 2011, the electronic PAYE-tax procedure will replace the cardboard tax card. This is a success of the project “KONSENS” for the area of the tax card that is leadingly carried out by the Ministry of Finance of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The introduction of the new procedure is an important milestone in the modernization of the Financial Administration in Germany: from 2011, all PAYE issues will be processed electronically. This reduces significantly the administrative barriers for economy and citizens relieving the local authorities of the yearly wasteful production of the cardboard tax card. 

The core piece of the new procedure is the electronic PAYE data (German abbr. ELStAM). In the future, employers can electronically retrieve this data via ELSTER (e-government tax program) of the Federal Central Tax Office (German abbr. BZSt). This lays the groundwork for employers for the PAYE.

In 2010, in order to set the stages for this purpose the tax data that are administered by the local authorities until now, will be electronically transferred to the BZSt.