Finance Minister Edith Sitzmann: "The future of modern administration is being developed and tested at Rottweil "
Finance Minister Edith Sitzmann presented the tax office as the "Tax Office of the Future", or FiZ for short, at Rottweil on Thursday. "We are testing innovations in five of the 65 tax offices, from digital citizen services to communication with companies. I am delighted that the tax office Rottweil has developed such a good concept. The future of modern administration is being developed and tested at Rottweil," said Edith Sitzmann. The Minister of Finance presented the key areas together with Chief Finance President Andrea Heck and the head of the tax office, Michael Kewes.
"We want to significantly expand the service for citizens in the coming years," said Sitzmann. This will be made possible, for example, by appointment scheduling, call-back and video conferencing systems as well as the expansion of digital case processing. "The tax authorities benefit from digital processing because there is more time for more complicated cases. And it's faster for citizens," emphasized Chief Finance President Andrea Heck. This is why the existing ELSTER service offering is to be significantly expanded. In addition to the already familiar ELSTER training courses, citizens have the opportunity to ask questions about ELSTER (such as authentication via ELSTER) at the central information and acceptance points. The service is available to citizens at Rottweil on Tuesdays in the morning and Thursdays in the afternoon at dedicated terminals. From May 2018, this ELSTER service will also be available at the Oberndorf branch on Wednesdays in the afternoon and Thursdays in the morning. "We want to make it easier to get started," explained the Finance Minister.
Rottweil alongside Offenburg, Oberndorf is one of two tax offices in the administrative district of Freiburg and one of a total of five tax offices in the state that are testing additional digitalization options. "I am delighted that our application was successful. I would like to say a big thank you to the employees here at Rottweil. With their good ideas and commitment, they show how financial administration can become more modern," said Michael Kewes, head of the office.
Background "digital@bw"
Digitalization is a central focus of the state government's work. To this end, it has launched an investment offensive: around one billion euros will be invested in digitalization during this legislative period. The first state-wide and cross-departmental digitalization strategy, "digital@bw", was presented in summer 2017 and was created as a team effort by all ministries. Over the next two years, more than 70 very specific projects with a volume of over 300 million euros will be implemented in order to anchor Baden-Württemberg as a leading region for digital change in Europe. One of the focal points of "digital@bw" is Administration 4.0. With Extern: www.digital-bw.de (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), the state government has also launched a central online portal as a new showcase for digitalization.