As a rule, you will also find your IdNo on your last income tax assessment or on your employment tax statement.

If you cannot find your IdNo in the specified documents, the Federal Central Tax Office needs the following data to inform you of your IdNo:

• Last name
• First name
• Address (street, house number, postal code and city)
• Date of birth
• Place of birth

You can submit your personal data using the entry form on the Federal Central Tax Office's Internet portal or in writing to the Federal Central Tax Office, Department St II 7, 11055 Berlin.

In both cases, notification of your IdNo may be delayed due to the high volume of requests.

No. The IdNo has been permanently assigned to you. If you have lost the notification letter, the Federal Central Tax Office can send you your IdNo again.

The Federal Central Tax Office will send you your IdNo as soon as the registration office has sent it the necessary data.

If you have not received a notification of your IdNo after three months, you can provide the Federal Central Tax Office with your personal data (last name, first name, address (street, house number, postal code, city), date of birth, place of birth). The Federal Central Tax Office will then contact your registration office and send you your IdNo.

The Federal Central Tax Office will send your child the IdNo as soon as the registration office has sent it the necessary data.

If your child has not received an IdNo after three months, you can provide the Federal Central Tax Office with your child's personal data (last name, first name, address (street, house number, postal code, city), date of birth, place of birth). The Federal Central Tax Office will then contact the registration office and send the IdNo to your child.

Notification regarding the IdNo of a child is always sent to the current registered address. The IdNo may be sent to a different address belonging to one of the parents only if documentary evidence of custody is provided. Please send a copy of your documentary evidence (e.g. the divorce decree) to:

Bundeszentralamt für Steuern
Referat St II 3
11055 BERLIN
GERMANY

However, if you are not or were not married and your child does not live in a shared household with you, you have the option of notifying the tax office responsible for your tax matters that you are not in possession of your child's IdNo.

When necessary, the tax authorities can ascertain the child's IdNo. In this case the tax office can determine the childs IdNo itself for internal use. Please note that the tax office is not authorized to provide you with the child‘s IdNo.

Health insurance companies can perform a computer inquiry ("automatic request procedure") to find out the IdNo from the Federal Central Tax Office. The IdNo is then communicated directly to the health insurance company.

In order to communicate the IdNo to a guardian, we need the appointment letter and a letter stating the scope of the care. Please send a copy of your documentary evidence (e.g. the court's written order) to:

Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt)
Department St II 3
DGZ-Ring 12
13086 Berlin
E-Mail: Pers-Id-SIC@bzst.bund.de

Please be sure to include the following information about the ward:

• Last and first name
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Address

We cannot communicate an IdNo to third parties without legitimate proof for data protection reasons. This also applies to the information as to whether a particular person has been assigned an IdNo. If you are acting on behalf of someone, please send the power of attorney that gives you the authority as well as (a copy of) the identity card of the principal to:

Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt)
Department St II 3
DGZ-Ring 12
13086 Berlin

Documentary evidence of universal succession (Section 45 of the Fiscal Code) is required in order to communicate the IdNo of a deceased individual. Please send a copy of your documentary evidence (e.g. certificate of inheritance) to:

Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt)
Department St II 3
DGZ-Ring 12
13086 Berlin

Social service providers (such as pension insurance funds, health insurance companies, employment offices, the family pay offices, etc.), employers and other bodies are (or will be) obligated to communicate tax-relevant data to the tax authorities (such as provident expenses and contributions to insurance plans for retirement, illness, and disability). This data is transmitted electronically to simplify tax administration and relieve the burden on citizens. The IdNo is needed to forward and allocate the data to individual taxpayers. This also applies if the beneficiary (e.g. the recipient of the pension payments) lives abroad.

If you donate money or things and you want the donation receipt to be sent directly and electronically to your tax office, then you must disclose your IdNo to the nonprofit organization. In accordance with Section 5(1)(9) Corporation Tax Act (KStG) as corporations entitled to special tax reliefs that electronically transmit data to the financial authorities at a donor's request, the corporations may request and provide the donor's last name, first name, date of birth, address and IdNo for the purpose of a clear allocation of tax information (Section 10b of the Income Tax Act (EStG), Section 50(2) Income Tax Ordinance (EStDV); Section 93c(1)(2)(c) of the Fiscal Code).

The beneficiary or individual making the contributions is required to disclose their IdNo to authorities responsible for the data transmission upon request (Section 22a(2) sentence 1 of the Income Tax Act (EStG)). If the request is unsuccessful, the law stipulates that the requesting bodies collect the IdNo in an automated procedure from the Federal Central Tax Office. You can find more information about the automatic request procedure for the IdNo in accordance with Section 22a(2) sentence 2 of the Income Tax Act on the Federal Central Tax Office website.

Savers or investors wishing to grant or change an exemption order must disclose their IdNo to the entity implementing this contract (e.g. banks, cooperatives, investment companies) (Section 44(2a) sentence 1 of the Income Tax Act (EStG)).

Yes, a request procedure is available for pension insurance funds, health and care insurances, the family pay offices, providers of Rürup and Riester pension plans, for companies that pay wage replacement benefits (Section 32b of the Income Tax Act) or tax-free subsidies to health and care insurances, and entities that deduct church taxes and in order to authenticate bank accounts.

In cases where these entities have unsuccessfully requested the IdNo from the beneficiary, it is possible to ascertain the IdNo in the automated request procedure (MAV) from the Federal Central Tax Office (see Section 22a(2) sentence 2 of the Income Tax Act (EStG)).

The entities that are required to notify the tax authorities are familiar with the automated request procedure (MAV). If, in individual cases, the entities are not familiar with the MAV, they have the opportunity to obtain information about the MAV pursuant to Section 22a(2) of the Income Tax Act

• from the competent department at the Federal Central Tax Office or on the Federal Central Tax Office website as well as
• on the website of the Central Retirement Savings Benefits Agency (ZfA) or the ZfA telephone hotline at +49 3381 21222377.

The electronic transmission of tax-relevant data (e.g. contributions to health and long-term care insurance that is deductible as special expenses) was introduced to simplify the taxation process.

Since the 2011 calendar year, insurance companies have needed the insured party's IdNo to transmit data. The insurance company can ask the person paying the premiums for their IdNo or request the insured party's IdNo from the Federal Central Tax Office using the automated request procedure (MAV). The automatic request procedure for health insurers has been available since 1 May 2010. However, the prerequisite for the data transfer and the request for the IdNo from the Federal Central Tax Office's official records is that the insured party does not refuse the legal consent required by law. The insurance company is obligated to inform its insured parties about the legal basis.

As a social service provider, the employment offices need the IdNo to transmit data to the state financial authorities. This involves data that must be taken into account for determining tax liability.

The social service recipient is obligated to disclose their IdNo to the responsible employment office at their request. If the employment office is unsuccessful in requesting the number from the recipient, the employment office can request the IdNo from the Federal Central Tax Office using the automated request procedure (MAV).

Please notify the employment office if you do not know your IdNo.

The legal bases are: Section 22a(2) and Section 32b(3) of the Income Tax Act (EStG)

The IdNo is to be used for applications, declarations or notifications to the tax authorities (Section 6 of the Fiscal Code (AO)) and therefore also the family pay offices.

Questions and answers on applying for and receiving child benefits can be found here.

Taxpayers who are not registered in Germany, but earn income here and are therefore subject to limited or unlimited income tax liabilities, are generally assigned an IdNo during the processing of their income tax return.

You will be notified of the assignment of an IdNo in a notification letter.

The assignment of an IdNo was requested by your pension fund. Pension funds are obligated to inform the German tax authorities of the amount of the pensions they are paying out. The pension funds need the recipient's IdNo to notify the German tax office. This also applies if the pension funds make payments abroad.

In the letter that you received, you were notified about your IdNo that the Federal Central Tax Office provided to your pension fund for payment of the pension benefits.

Pension benefits are taxable in Germany, which means that retirees established abroad must file an income tax return.

Whether Germany actually taxes the pension benefits depends on whether an agreement to eliminate double taxation has been concluded between your country of residence and Germany and this agreement has granted Germany the right to tax pension benefits from Germany.

The Neubrandenburg tax office is responsible for taxation of pensioners established abroad. The Neubrandenburg tax office website explains which pensions are taxable and when a tax return must be filed.

For additional information on the taxation of pensions, please contact:

Neubrandenburg Tax Office (RiA)
P.O. Box 110140
17041 Neubrandenburg
Germany
Tel.: +49 395 44222-47000
Tel.: +49 395 44222-47100
E-Mail: ria@finanzamt-neubrandenburg.de
Web: www.finanzamt-neubrandenburg.de

Please inform the relevant institution that you do not live in Germany. The IdNo will then be assigned in an automated process that can be initiated by the institutions. The Federal Central Tax Office will then notify you about the assignment of an IdNo.

Each person may be assigned only one IdNo in accordance with Section 139a(1) sentence 1 of the Fiscal Code (AO);

however, sometimes data on the same person is entered several times and transmitted to the Federal Central Tax Office, which results in this person being assigned more than one IdNo (multiple IdNos).

The sources of these errors are numerous. Obsolete, incomplete or slightly divergent data for a person or processing errors in the data exchange between the Federal Central Tax Office and the registration offices and tax offices can lead to multiple accounts for one person.

The Federal Central Tax Office is usually notified about the IdNos by the registration office, the financial authorities or the taxpayer.

The BZSt coordinates the underlying facts of the matter with the authorities involved.

If an instance of multiple registration is confirmed, the identification number that was first assigned to the person concerned continues to apply. The other identification number(s) will be cancelled and can no longer be used.

The BZSt will inform the person concerned by letter about the cancellation of the respective identification number.

In principle, the IdNr stored at the responsible registration authority should apply.
In the case of persons to whom the IdNr has not been assigned on the basis of a data record of the registration authority, a decision must be made on a case-by-case basis as to which IdNr will apply in future. Further IdNs will no longer be used and will be decommissioned.

The decommissioning of an IdNr is initiated by an electronic message from the registration authority to the BZSt.

If the reporting authority is unable to transmit the electronic message, the BZSt carries out the decommissioning.

You will receive an automated notification from the BZSt about the decommissioning of the IdNr.