Generate a German ELSTER VAT Tax Return File

Use Tax File Generation to produce the German ELSTER VAT tax return file, a monthly tax return to file with the German tax authorities.

Prerequisites: You must enter the following settings in Vision for this file to generate correctly:

• On the General tab in Configuration > General > Company Settings: Enter your firm's name, street address in Address Line 1, postal code in Address Line 4, company email, and company phone.
• On the Tax Auditing tab in Configuration > Accounting > Company Settings:
  • Enter your firm's tax registration number.
  • Select the Enable Tax Auditing Feature check box.
  • Set up the following tax regions: EU (European Union), which excludes Germany, and DE for Germany.
• On the Tax Codes tab in Configuration > Accounting > Taxes: Enter tax codes with a tax region of EU and DE. Tax Codes for 19% Sales Tax (for Kz81) must end with "19." No other tax codes for the active company can end with "19."

To generate the German ELSTER VAT tax return file, complete the following steps:

1. From the Vision Navigation menu, click Accounting > Tax File Generation.
2. In the File Format field on the General tab of the Tax File Generation form, select German ELSTER File.
3. Select other criteria for the tax file output on the General tab. Only the fields that apply for the file format that you selected are enabled on the General tab.
4. Click the Review tab and review the transactions and totals that will be included in the tax file.
5. On the toolbar of the Tax File Generation form, click Generate File to create the tax file.
6. On the File Download dialog box, select whether to save or open the Transfer.ini file.
   • If you choose to save the file, complete the entries on the Save As dialog box.
   • If you open the file, it displays in Windows Notepad. You can save the file from within Notepad.
7. Send the tax file to the German tax authorities as you normally do.