LMUDigitax: The Conference on the Digitisation of Tax Law – a Review

Last Updated on 1. April 2025 by mgm-marketing

The LMUDigiTax conference on the digitisation of tax law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich took place in mid-March for the third year in a row. This year, the focus was on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in taxation, improvements in digital tax enforcement and the fully automated taxation of employees (EasyTax). The three thematic blocks were each opened by lectures from speakers in science, administration or economy and then deepened in plenary discussions. As an expert in the areas of digitisation of tax and digitisation of legislation, mgm was present as a conference participant.

Thematic block 1: Fully automated taxation of employees (Easy Tax)

Andreas Kussinger from the Bavarian State Office for Taxes (LfST) opened the thematic block with an outlook on the ‘potential for change in the pre-filled tax return’ and also presented the successful eGovernment project ELSTER with the ‘MyELSTER app’. This allows receipts to be scanned directly and uploaded to the ELSTER app. The vision behind it: to automatically provide taxpayers with a proposal for their tax return each year, based on the existing data from the tax administration. This proposal should also include a calculation of the tax.

Topic 2: Framework conditions for the use of AI in taxation

The latest developments in the ‘use of AI in taxation’ were presented and discussed here – particularly in relation to the EU Parliament’s ‘AI Act’, which was passed the day before. Patrick Glauner from the Deggendorf Institute of Technology highlighted the requirements of European law and the categorisation of AI systems, expressing criticism of the compliance hurdles and regulatory proposals, which could be particularly problematic for SMEs.

Topic 3: Improving digital tax enforcement

In the thematic block ‘Improving digital tax enforcement’, Kathleen Jennrich from the Federal Ministry of Finance presented the ‘Once Only’ principle to avoid multiple reporting of the same data and thus promote the reduction of bureaucracy. At the company level, the business identification number should also serve as a uniform national business number in order to relieve companies of reporting obligations.

More information:

Blog article: eGovernment project ELSTER celebrates its 25th birthday

Blog article: NEGZ study on the digitalisation of legislation by mgm, RWTH and LfST published

Nadine Kneschke
Nadine Kneschke is part of the mgm marketing team and is responsible for various topics related to the public sector. She writes about digitization projects in administration and business - thanks to her many years of experience in editorial reporting, she explains complex IT topics in a way that is tailored to the target audience and easy to understand.