11.5 million people are to receive a tax return from this month that already looks almost complete. The MeinElster+ app uses data that the tax administration already has, builds a proposed return from it and shows a preview of the tax assessment. After that, everything can be checked, adjusted and submitted.
This is a huge step forward, but anything but a tax gift. The state is not building a tool that automatically searches for the highest refund. It is building a process that processes existing data faster without passing on this advantage.
The state already has a lot of data in its system
In simple tax cases, the old tax return is often unreasonable: wage tax statements, pension payment notifications, health insurance contributions and other standard data are already available digitally. Nevertheless, citizens long had to pretend that they were telling the state something completely new. MeinElster+ ends this duplication at least for an initial target group: single employees without children and people with retirement income without further income are supposed to benefit from the function nationwide from this month. The procedure was developed as part of cross-state tax digitization.
The process fits the year 2026: open the app, check the proposal, add information if necessary and send it off. For people who previously did not file a return at all because of paper, forms or the ELSTER interface, this can bring money. Not because the state becomes more generous, but because a return is filed at all.
Income is easier to record than expenses
But this exact data situation contains the greatest weakness. In Germany, income in the form of wages, pensions, capital income, social security contributions and many insurance data points is optimally visible to the state because it receives these reports automatically. Expenses, by contrast, are much harder to see: commuting distance, work equipment, further training, application costs, working from home, tradespeople, care costs, donations, medical costs or household-related services depend on real life and the receipts of individuals.
Some of this does not automatically appear in MeinElster+ but is merely covered by lump sums, even though the actual costs may be higher. In the end, you pay more to the tax authorities than you actually would have to. Anyone who accepts the app’s proposal merely gets a fast tax return.
Convenience has its price
Digital procedures change behavior. A blank tax form forces people to think, even if it is tedious. A completed proposal, by contrast, feels like an invitation to tick it off. That saves time, but it can also cost real money. This is not a criticism of the app, because pre-filling is useful. A modern state should not make citizens search for the same data every year. But administrative logic must not turn into financial passivity. The tax office checks what is declared for tax purposes and does not actively search for every expense that might still be missing.
For simple cases, MeinElster+ can be entirely sufficient. With changing jobs, side income, high commuting costs, a larger share of working from home, care cases, medical costs or rental income, it quickly becomes more difficult. And even more so when there are additional types of income such as freelance work, self-employment or proceeds from private sale transactions, also known as cryptocurrencies.
Assessment
Germany likes to discuss simpler procedures, and that is a good thing, because bureaucracy is annoying! The bigger point, however, remains the burden on earned income and income in general. A tax return that is submitted faster changes nothing about bracket creep, social security contributions, marginal tax rates or the fact that more gross income does not automatically create more wealth.
MeinElster+ merely simplifies the process and should not simply be accepted without checking. If the app saves ten minutes but a forgotten expense costs 200 euros, the convenience was expensive. Your own tax situation should always be checked!
