ELStAMSystem

ELStAMSystem, short for Elektronische Lohnsteuerabzugsmerkmale-System, is a German federal IT system used by the tax administration to store and provide wage tax deduction characteristics for employees. It replaced the previous paper Lohnsteuerkarte and is operated by the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (BZSt). The system interfaces with employers, payroll providers, and tax offices to deliver up-to-date tax data needed for payroll withholding.

Its main purpose is to ensure the correct amount of wage tax is withheld from an employee’s pay by supplying current wage tax data. Data in ELStAM is updated when personal circumstances change, such as marital status, tax class, number of children, church tax status, or declared tax-related subsidies. The data is linked to the employee’s Steueridentifikationsnummer (tax identification number) and becomes active for payroll at the appropriate time.

Data elements typically include tax class (Steuerklasse), church tax indicator (Kirchensteuermerkmal), child allowances (Kinderfreibetrag), and other tax-related Freibeträge or entlastungsbeträge. Access is strictly controlled: only authorized employers or payroll processors can query the ELStAM system, using the employee’s tax ID to retrieve the current data for payroll calculation. Privacy and data-protection rules govern transmission and storage; data is transmitted securely and only for the purpose of wage tax withholding.

ELStAM covers employees in Germany subject to wage tax, including civil service and private sector workers, and the system forms part of the modernization of tax administration. It does not apply to self-employed individuals or non-wage income; changes in the data typically propagate to payroll systems promptly to reflect new withholding allowances.