Short instructions on ELSTER basic registration Open www.elster.de. Click on the left in the navigation column under the Produkte heading on ELSTEROnline Click on weiter zum ELSTEROnline- Portal (continue to ELSTEROnline portal) in the centre of the page; a new window opens.
Change from the Startseite (start page) to the registration page by clicking on Registrierung (Registration) under Öffentlicher Bereich (Public area). Click on Infos und Registrierung (Infos and registration) under the heading ELSTERBasis; the screen then expands downward and the following view appears: Please click on zur Registrierung (to registration).
Now click on: Schritt 1 : Angaben zur Person und gegebenenfalls Organisation (Step 1: Information on person and if necessary on organisation). Now please select your certificate type. The persönliches Zertifikat (personal certificate) is sufficient for income tax purposes. Registration with the nicht-persönliches Zertifikat (Non-personal certificate; company tax number) is recommended for value-added tax/wage tax purposes. Please have your company tax number ready for registration! The further registration process is identical for both types of certificates. Help for entering the data that follows now is provided at https://www.elsteronline.de/hilfe/eop/public/registrierung/help_registrierung.html (only in german).
Please fill in the personal data and the security query. After clicking Weiter (Continue), a new window appears (not shown here; so-called security test). Please enter the letters and/or numbers that appear there and click on Weiter (Continue) again..to send the registration data to the fiscal authorities with Absenden (Send). A sending confirmation then appears on your screen (not shown here) with the heading "Your e-mail confirmation is underway".
A few seconds later you will find an e-mail in the e-mail mailbox you have specified (a socalled confirmation e-mail; shown here as an excerpt). In it the fiscal authorities ask you to confirm the receipt of the e-mail by clicking on the link that then follows. Please click on this link. After clicking, you will receive an e-mail (a socalled activation mail, shown here as an excerpt). Please do not delete this e- mail. It contains the initial information on your further registration steps. Please wait now until you receive the activation code and the remaining information for registration (for security reasons by letter). This can take up to 14 days. Please refrain from enquiring with your tax authorities prior to the expiration of the 14 days. The letter (not shown here) with the heading "Aktivierung Ihres Benutzerkontos im ELSTER-Online-Portal (Activation of your user account at the ELSTER Online Portal)" contains your Aktivierungs-Code (activation code) in the centre of the text. This is a 12- place combination of numbers and letters, followed by your chosen short name as a supplement in brackets.
Now after receiving the letter open the socalled activation e-mail (see the picture at the bottom of the previous page, not at the top!) and click on the link shown there. You then automatically return to this page (see at left). Now click on Schritt 2: Aktivierung und erstmaliges Login (Step 2: Activation and initial login). Please enter the "activation ID" here (from the activation e-mail, see picture at bottom of previous page) and then enter the "activation code" (12-place combination of numbers and letters from the letter received with the post) here and click on Weiter (Continue). After you have then given yourself a password (please note it, the corresponding entry screen is not shown here), you can log in for the first time. Congratulations on your registration at the ELSTER Online Portal!
The so-called certificate, a file, was generated during the activation process. It contains your entered data securely encrypted and is your "electronic signature". The file name consists of: "<First namefamily name>_<account short name>_elster_2048.pfx". The file is generally saved under C:\Documents and Settings\<Your name> (with Macintosh in the User directory). You can also choose a different storage location. When you want to log in at https://www.elsteronline.de/eportal in future (ideally, you save the address as a favourite), you click on Software-Zertifikat and then on Login. This login screen appears. After clicking on Durchsuchen (Browse) a window opens and you must find the above file with the ending.pfx on your computer. Please click on it 1x so that it is marked or appears in the "File name" field and then click on Öffnen (Open). The window closes again. Then enter the password you have assigned yourself in the login screen under "PIN" (see previous page at very bottom) and click the Login button. Important note: Tax requirements are generally met at larger time intervals (monthly, quarterly or annually). It is therefore advisable to additionally save the <First namelast name>_<account short name>_elster_2048.pfx file on an external data carrier (e.g. a USB stick) and to keep it in a safe place only accessible to you, which you can then find again easily when processing your tax matters. This enables you to ensure, independently of the system used, that you can always quickly and easily access this file in future including when you change computers or if you use several computers at the same time when transmitting data to the fiscal authorities. It is not possible to restore the.pfx file if lost. Complete re-registration is unavoidable in this case. The same applies to your PIN. With the ELSTER basic registration type, although your user account will not be blocked after entering the PIN three times incorrectly, a complete reregistration is also unavoidable should the PIN be irretrievably lost.