The Labor Chamber of Vorarlberg warns against the use of the digital assistant for employee assessments on the “FinanzOnline” website of the Ministry of Finance. Because the aid does not take into account the special circumstances of the individual taxpayer. It can therefore happen that users leave hundreds of euros in credit on their tax return.
In a current broadcast, the AK reports on a taxpayer who first used this help in 2022 for her employee tax assessment. The result was a credit of 123 euros, about 500 euros less than last year. When she filled in the form again without help from the assistant, her balance suddenly stood at 635 euros.
Eva-Maria Düringer of the AK therefore strongly advises against using the assistant, because the woman is not an isolated case. The reason for the difference is that the assistant is not personalized, ie it does not recognize the previous year’s values. Purchases from previous years, which could still be written off, would easily be forgotten without this possibility of comparison. In addition, the questions the tool asks are problematic. For example, some questions are asked about travel allowances or advertising costs, but not about expenditure on professional literature.
Ministry of Finance: Assistant is constantly being improved
The Ministry of Finance emphasizes that measures are constantly being taken to make tax equalization less complicated. The aim is to make the processes as simple as possible for citizens. The goal of the assistant is to be able to answer at least 80 percent of the tax returns with simple questions. Mapping out the entire tax return with the help of an assistant would have made the employee tax return significantly more complicated for the majority of citizens, a statement said.
However, form logic and an explanatory video are available. The assistant is of course evaluated and improved every year. The Labor Chamber was also involved in workshops on this subject in 2019.
Source: Krone
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