ELSTER
Germany's official online tax portal.
ELSTER (Elektronische Steuererklärung) is the German tax administration portal for submitting tax returns electronically. Landlords use it to submit the Einkommensteuererklärung and attach Anlage V for rental income. Registration can take time because the certificate setup may involve postal verification, so non-resident landlords should not wait until the filing deadline to create an account. Once logged in, ELSTER expects values in official fields rather than a free-form spreadsheet: rent, reimbursed costs, maintenance expenses, loan interest, AfA, and other Werbungskosten must be entered in the correct places. A practical workflow is to prepare the numbers first, keep one browser tab for ELSTER, one tab for the preparation report, run the plausibility check, then save the Übermittlungsprotokoll after submission. Anlage V Easy does not connect to ELSTER or submit the form. It prepares a Zeile-by-Zeile report with the numbers, labels, and explanations you need to copy the rental-property result into the official portal yourself.
Last reviewed: by Yann Lephay.