Authority Management

Präsidentin Brigitte Vossebürger

Brigitte Vossebürger
President

Brigitte Vossebürger heads the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt).

Authority structure

The BZSt is organised into five departments. The departments consist of up to 32 units with different focal points.

Central department (Zentralabteilung)

Head of department: Béatrice Freiwald
Deputy: N. N.

The central department organises the operations of the Federal Central Tax Office, and performs both central management and other coordination tasks. This includes the remits of Human Resources, Organisation, Budget and Finance, Property Management, Internal Services and Legal. The central department also supports the implementation of digitalisation measures at the BZSt, structures IT projects as part of its project portfolio management approach, and supports the specialist departments with the central data and analytics unit (Data & Analytics Unit) for the automation of processes and the use of AI. Furthermore, the central department is responsible for “KONSENS”.

Department – "Tax N" (National)

Head of department: Renate Büscher
Deputy: Thomas Klein

The department “Tax N” is primarily responsible for national tax issues. These include insurance and fire protection tax, technical supervision pertaining to the family benefit equalisation funds (“Familienleistungsausgleich”) and the Central Allowance Office for Retirement Assets ("Zentrale Zulagenstelle für Altersvermögen") in the context of the so-called national “Riester” pension, the allocation of the tax identification number, the account retrieval procedure, the assessment of the impact of legislation, withholding taxes for persons with limited tax liability in accordance with Sections 50 and 50a German Income Tax Act (EStG) (so-called “register cases”) and the federal ELStAM procedure.

Department – "Tax U" (value added tax)

Head of department: Melanie Deurer
Deputy: Tina Dondorf

The "Tax U" department deals with VAT issues, including the VAT monitoring procedure, VAT administrative assistance, fine proceedings and enforcement, as well as issues relating to the One-Stop Shop, input tax refunds and combating VAT fraud. This department is also responsible for the business identification number in accordance with Section 139c German Fiscal Code (AO) and the register of recipients of donations in accordance with Section 60b German Fiscal Code (AO).

Special unit

Head of department: Petra Klawikowski
Deputy: Janine Betz

The special unit comprises the Capital Markets and International Information Exchange groups. The "Capital Market Group" deals with capital gains tax relief in accordance with Sections 50c and 50d German Income Tax Act (EStG), investment tax, cum-ex proceedings and comprises the "Central Office for Fines and Criminal Matters" (Bustra), the "Capital Gains Tax Information and Analysis Centre" and the remit tasked with assessing relief from withholding taxes in accordance with Sections 50a and 50d German Income Tax Act (EStG).The tasks of the “International Exchange of Information Group” pertain to the evaluation of cross-border tax arrangements, the international automatic exchange of information, international administrative assistance and the "Information Centre for Foreign Tax Relations" (IZA).

Federal Audit Department

Head of department: Maria-Luise Suschek-Nowack
Deputy: Hermann Schult

The "Federal Audit Department" (Bp) – which was restructured on 1 April 2024 – includes "Central Audit Management" (ZBpM) and five "Cooperation Divisions" (KB) with the following audit and activity focal points:

KB I: Trade and Public Sector
Cooperation area manager: Dirk Plum

KB II: Manufacturing Industry
Cooperation area manager: Dr. Harald Münch

KB III: Financial Sector
Cooperation area manager: Claudia Wahlen

KB IV: Mobility and Information Economy
Cooperation area manager: Dr. Christian Wenzel

KB V: International Proceedings
Cooperation area manager: Arnim Hilse

Within KB V – International Proceedings – and in addition to simultaneous tax audits, joint tax audits and, in particular, dispute resolution proceedings (mutual agreement procedures, arbitration proceedings and APAs) are performed.

The cooperation area managers are also contact persons for companies in matters relating to tax audits in connection with escalation discussions and contact persons in the sense of a single point of contact for the state financial administration bodies and at international level.