ELStAM, employer, retrieval of monthly lists

There are many circumstances that cause a change in the wage tax deduction criteria for the employee or make it necessary (e.g. marriage, birth of a child, joining or leaving church). These changes are implemented in the ELStAM procedure (electronic wage tax deduction features) as follows:

• The municipality or the tax office send the changes to the data to the ELStAM database.
• This then creates a monthly list of changes (so-called 'monthly list') for the employer, provided that the ELStAM of its employees has changed.
• The provision takes place a few days after the end of a month, e.g. for the month of October at the beginning of November.
• The change lists are numbered from 01-12 and are available until February 28th. of the following year ready for retrieval. The lists can be called up multiple times.
• The change lists contain all changes that occurred in the month of the change list. Under certain circumstances, monthly lists with the same content may also be delivered because every change in the employee's registration data (e.g. relocation), regardless of its tax implications, results in a change list for the employer. As only the changes relevant to the wage tax deduction criteria are visible to the employer for data protection reasons, in such a case he receives a list with data unchanged from the previous month. The employer then does not need to take any further action.
• The changed ELStAM can be included with retrospective validity, valid from the day of the event, valid from the 1st following month or from the beginning of the following year (in the change list 10, 11 or 12 of the previous year).
• The employer is obliged to request and access the monthly lists provided on a monthly basis. With payroll programs, this is usually done automatically. If there are no changes, the employer receives a monthly list with the information that no changes have been made to the ELStAM for his employees.
• The employer can request a notification service from Mein ELSTER, which informs him by e-mail about the provision of changed ELStAM. This e-mail contains a notification when changed ELStAMs are available for retrieval. The employer can then access the current ELStAM in a targeted manner. If the employer chooses this method of notification, he is released from the monthly obligation to call up the change lists.
• In the change list, it is also noted from when the changed data is to be used for payroll accounting. The employer must transfer the changed data to the payroll account and apply it from the date of validity.
• If ELStAM is made available to the employer for retrieval, which retroactively affects a point in time before the ELStAM was called up, the employer is entitled (but not obliged) to reimburse the previously levied wage tax on the next wage payment or to collect wage tax that has not yet been levied (recalculation ).