Germany uses online tax filing software called Elster. The European Magpie goes by the same name, and is also known as “die diebische Elster”, the stealing magpie, which makes it kinda cute. Sorta. Bit.
Well, the software totally sucks. Whoever programmed it likes taking shortcuts and forgets the wide variety of operating systems taxpayers use. I’ve had nothing but trouble with this year’s updates. Doing our income taxes this year was simply horrible, as the system kept requesting entries along the lines of “I have nothing to enter here”. At least we got it done. But transmitting my quarterly sales tax yesterday failed completely due to a new update that wouldn’t download to my hard drive. Helmut got creative and tried renaming various paths on my computer (danke, Schatz), but the download didn’t like that at all. I wound up creating an interesting 3-page snail mail package including a full-color print out of the various error messages. Thought it might brighten up the tax official’s office.
At least I didn’t rant in the letter.
That’s what blogs are for.
Ein Herz für Steuerbeamte.
I’m self-employed and do everything myself. I’m my own creative, my own secretary, my own boss and my own accountant. Now I’m even my own psychiatrist.
