From 1 January 2023 onwards, applications for capital income tax relief (exemptions and refunds) under section 50c of the Income Tax Act must be filed electronically via the Federal Central Tax Office’s official online portal (BOP), using the officially prescribed data set. Due to the large numbers of refund applications submitted by institutions that file multiple applications on behalf of their clients, the Federal Central Tax Office plans to provide another interface (called a “mass data interface”) in addition to the interface used by individual filers.

The Federal Central Tax Office may permit tax advisors and other authorised institutions such as banks (see sections 3, 3a et seqq. and 4 of the Tax Consultancy Act) to use the new interface if they (a) regularly file a large number of refund applications and (b) have the technical ability to connect to the interface.

According to current plans, the new interface will be available initially only for filing refund applications (under section 50c (3) of the Income Tax Act), and not for filing exemption applications (under section 50c (2) of the Income Tax Act).

The new interface is currently under development. The Federal Central Tax Office plans to set up a user group for the purpose of identifying potential users in advance and keeping them informed. Institutions that are interested in using the planned mass data interface can register up to two persons for the user group.

The user group’s initial, purely informational meetings – which will focus on the basic plans and time frame for the new interface, and not yet on specific technical details – will be held in German only.

We would like to emphasise that the user group will focus exclusively on the new mass data interface and not on electronic procedures for filing individual applications.

Furthermore, eligibility for participating in the user group is restricted to individuals, companies and institutions that either (a) submit mass filings of refund applications in their own name or (b) are authorised under the Tax Consultancy Act to provide assistance in tax matters. This is because only these persons have powers of (legal) representation for tax relief applications under section 50c of the Income Tax Act (in the case of credit institutions, for example, section 4 no 12 of the Tax Consultancy Act applies). This means that if, for example, an IT service provider wishes to participate in the user group, its representative could participate in the user group only if that person is appointed by a person/institution authorised to provide assistance in tax matters.

If you are interested in participating in the user group, please submit this form by 30 March 2023.