Following the new letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the new taxonomies have recently been published at www.esteuer.de Available. With the latest version of Opti.Tax, the so-called core and sector taxonomies have been successfully imported. The data maintenance interface appears differently when a new balance sheet project is opened and the newly imported taxonomy is selected.
For all taxpayers
The provisions of Section 5b of the Income Tax Act (EStG) are, in principle, to be applied for the first time to financial years beginning after 31 December 2011. For the first financial year commencing after 31 December 2011 (where the financial year coincides with the calendar year, this is 2012), no objection will be raised if the balance sheet and profit and loss account have not yet been submitted in accordance with the officially prescribed data format via electronic data transmission. In such cases, the usual submission in paper form is sufficient.
Entities eligible for tax relief
In future, organisations entitled to tax relief – such as hospitals, associations, foundations, etc. – will be required to submit a balance sheet and a profit and loss account in accordance with the officially prescribed data format. The same applies to so-called commercial enterprises if they draw up a balance sheet and a profit and loss account.
However, under a transitional arrangement, these companies are permitted to submit the contents of their balance sheets and profit and loss accounts via remote data transmission for the first time for financial years beginning after 31 December 2014.
Partnerships
Partnerships must now also complete the mandatory fields in the „Capital Accounts“ section of the report for financial years commencing after 31 December 2014 (transitional period). The transitional provisions have been largely harmonised in this respect.
In future, special and supplementary balance sheets must each be submitted in separate data sets in accordance with the officially prescribed data set. For financial years ending before 1 January 2015, there are special concessions regarding the technical submission of these data sets.
Domestic permanent establishments of foreign companies
Permanent establishments of foreign companies situated in Germany which draw up a balance sheet and profit and loss account for that permanent establishment must submit these in accordance with the officially prescribed data format. The same applies, in principle, to foreign companies which derive income from letting and leasing in Germany.
Back-up positions
In order to avoid interfering with accounting practices whilst still achieving the highest possible degree of standardisation, catch-all items have been included in the taxonomy’s data schema. A taxpayer who is unable to derive a distinction for a specific circumstance from their accounts, as specified by mandatory fields, may alternatively use the catch-all item to ensure the mathematical accuracy of the data submitted (unfortunately, what exactly is meant by „derivable“ has not been further clarified).
German 
English