ELSTER Experts in Germany
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Meet FRATCH Experts in Germany, who have recently used ELSTER
Steffen L.
Last position:
Consultant for BSI baseline protection and ISO 27701 at Society for International Cooperation
- Support in building and further developing the information security management system
- Cooperation with external consultants in the certification team for the support structure
- Involvement in project planning, identification, and implementation of the necessary measures according to BSI IT baseline protection
- Professional support for in-house subject matter experts in creating the documents required for certifications
- Carrying out the work according to BSI 200-2
Olaf T.
Last position:
BI Architect in a Kanban Team at Gulp / Randstad for HHLA
- Creation of automated tests.
- Extension of the functionality of the enterprise BI data warehouse.
- Design and development in SQL and PL/SQL.
- Data modeling as well as performance measurement and tuning.
- Creation of and contribution to user stories and concepts.
- Technical environment: Windows, Linux.
- Database: Oracle 19c incl. DWH, CDB, PDB.
- Tools: Confluence, CVS, Eclipse, Git, GitLab, Jira, N4, PL/SQL, SQL Developer, utPLSQL.
David K.
Last position:
IT Business Analyst at REWE digital
LOIS is the central integration platform that enables the processes between all REWE applications across the entire supply chain. As an IT Business Engineer, I support the NEO program in renewing the logistics integration platform "LOIS" for REWE and Penny in Germany and Europe.
Wolfgang T.
Last position:
Overall Project Manager at itzbund
Project content: The use of “Generative Pretrained Transformer” technologies (GPT) will massively change the world of work in the coming years. ITZBund is developing a base service for this, which can be used by its 200 customers. This base service is offered as an on-prem and a cloud variant. Started in 12/23, from 05/24 productive systems (based on MVP) could already be rolled out and operated successfully for several agencies and federal ministries.
Project metrics:
- Budget in 2024 approx. €20M
- approx. 70 people in the core project context
- regular (indirect) contact with approx. 80 people in the wider project environment
My main tasks:
- Overall responsible external project manager
- Project definition phase/project setup and establishment of the project organization
- Strategic and operational project planning, as well as shaping and ongoing adjustments of the project
- Ongoing coordination with project owners and stakeholders in ITZBund
- Ongoing coordination with subproject managers, agile roles and other project staff
- Responsibility for project controlling, quality management, risk management and change management
- Responsibility for providing the base service on on-prem and cloud environments and its continuous development
- Planning and leading several hypercare phases
- Collaboration and ongoing coordination with a partner project of a federal ministry and provision of an MVP
- Coordination with agile teams
- Coordination with operations, release and deployment
- Responsibility for the implementation of the first customer projects
- Responsibility for creating an AI governance
- Ensuring accessibility (BITV)
- Responsibility for setting up a subproject for marketing activities
- Support in building an efficient proposal process
- Stakeholder management
Methodology:
- V-Model XT ITZBund
- Scrum
Tools used:
- Microsoft Office, Skype, MS Project, Confluence, Jira, SharePoint, Miro
Max L.
Last position:
Test Analyst (manual testing) – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Factoring) at ABC Finanz Bank Köln
- Planning, execution, and documentation of manual tests in the factoring module of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, supported by AI-based tools for structuring
- Working in an agile project environment with two-week sprint cycles, including sprint planning, review, and QA coordination
- Implementation of progressive and regression test scenarios to cover new and existing functionalities
- Management and tracking of test cases and defects with TestRail and Jira (BAM tickets)
- Test coverage of central factoring processes: contact management, contract card, debtors, limit processes, company groups; payment transactions incl. journal entries, rebooking logic, and comment fields; testing and parameterization of the IKV/WKV components incl. reporting; portal tests in the TAS system (login, user management, feedback functions)
- Support for special modules and interfaces: in-house tiles, factoring dashboard, risk evaluation
- Test status maintenance and retest planning (Passed / Blocked / Partially Passed) in close coordination with business departments
- Quality assurance as part of data migration, including validation, deviation analysis, and follow-up documentation
Sebastian K.
Last position:
Senior Lead Developer, System Architecture at AVL DITEST
- Redesign of a legacy Windows app for vehicle diagnostics as an AWS cloud application
- Creating build pipelines and conducting code reviews using Kotlin, Spring Boot, Micronaut, Jenkins, and GitHub
Ali A.
Last position:
Intern Financial Accounting at VATAX GmbH
- Processing client accounting using DATEV, ELSTER, and Lexware
- Recording and reconciling financial transactions
- Supporting VAT and income tax calculations
- Preparing documents for audits and ensuring data quality
- Collaborating with tax advisors to optimize tax filings and maintain accounting standards and confidentiality
David V.
Last position:
Senior Full-Stack Developer at AL-KO Geräte GmbH
- Architected and executed complete enterprise migration of legacy hosting infrastructure to AWS Cloud platform for an international e-commerce network with 22 dedicated online shops.
- Optimized and improved existing OXID eShop platform across 22 country-specific domains, significantly improving load speeds and user experience through advanced performance optimization techniques.
- Implemented comprehensive AWS infrastructure with CloudFormation for automated deployments, RDS Aurora database clusters, OpenSearch analytics, Docker containerization, and auto-scaling mechanisms for traffic handling.
- Developed full-stack solutions with backend PIM/CRM integration for multilingual product management and frontend internationalization with country-specific routing, currency handling, and localized user experiences.
- Collaborated in a 6-developer team for an enterprise e-commerce platform serving 22 international markets.
- Technologies: AWS CloudFormation, OXID eShop, Docker, RDS Aurora, OpenSearch, Auto-Scaling, PIM/CRM Integration, Internationalization, Performance Optimization, E-Commerce.
- Achieved successful architecture and execution of complete enterprise migration and dramatic improvements in load speeds and user experience across all domains.
Ralf S.
Last position:
Senior Consultant / Developer at Überall Lokal
- Development of a marketplace for local retailers
- Technologies: Java, ORACLE, Ingres, REST, Spring Boot, Angular, nginx.
Andreas K.
Last position:
Senior Developer at ioki GmbH, a Deutsche Bahn AG company
- Fullstack development based on Next.js and TypeScript
- Development and optimization of geospatial database queries for PostgreSQL/PostGIS
- Visualization of geospatial data using Mapbox
- Design and execution of load tests and performance optimizations
- Code reviews and documentation tasks
- Technologies: JavaScript, TypeScript, Next.js, React, Zod, tRPC, Storybooks, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, MicroORM, Knex, Material UI, Mapbox, BullMQ, Jest, Playwright, Artillery.io, K6, Sentry, Figma, GitLab, Grafana, GTFS
Hans-Peter M.
Last position:
Developer at IT Center of the Federal Employment Agency
- Developing event-driven microservices with REST controllers and services
- Mapping data with JSON models
- Producing and consuming Kafka streams
- Generating PDFs
- Developing smart components, services, guards
- Processing the REST stream using observables following the reactive programming paradigm
- Integrating web components
- Implementing user authentication using OIDC/OAuth2 and JWTs
- Integrating Keycloak for simplified identity provider connection and introducing two-factor authentication
- Creating mockups for planning, implementation analysis, and feasibility studies
- Analyzing and implementing business requirements
- Conducting code reviews
- Maintaining and updating CI/CD pipelines
- Performing refactorings
- Conducting sprint reviews
- Monitoring production applications via Kibana and Grafana
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Statistics of experts using ELSTER
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
26 years
Position duration
1.5 years
Positions per freelancer
18
Top business areas
Information Technology, Product Development, Project Management
Top industries
Government and Administration, Information Technology, Banking and Finance
Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Product Development, Project Management
Bachelor's degree or higher
83%
Master's degree or higher
83%
Doctorate
33%
Certifications per freelancer
3
Most common languages
German, English, Spanish
Speak two or more languages
91%
Based on our profile pool as of 19 Sep 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this technology in Germany are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range.
Average rates of experts in Germany using ELSTER
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 19 Sep 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
ELSTER experts industry focus
See which industries our matched freelancers work in most often — every figure is calculated live from the freelancers on FRATCH.
- Government and Administration (91%)
- Information Technology (82%)
- Banking and Finance (73%)
- Automotive (64%)
- Transportation (55%)
- Professional Services (55%)
- Telecommunication (45%)
- Healthcare (36%)
Please note that freelancers can work across multiple industries, so percentages overlap.
About the technology
What ELSTER is
ELSTER, short for Elektronische Steuererklärung, is Germany’s electronic tax reporting system. It enables companies, tax practices and public bodies to submit declarations, notifications and certificates securely to tax authorities. Mein ELSTER is the current online portal for many users, while professional software can connect through official ELSTER interfaces.
Typical applications
ELSTER work sits at the centre of recurring tax and finance processes. Specialists help companies prepare reliable data flows from business systems into the required electronic formats.
- Submit VAT returns, income tax data and corporate tax information
- Process payroll tax certificates and withholding data
- Connect ERP, accounting and payroll software with ELSTER interfaces
- Validate tax data before transmission and handle response messages
- Support secure workflows for tax offices and internal finance teams
Ecosystem and tooling
The surrounding ecosystem includes Mein ELSTER, the ELSTER Rich Client and official transmission interfaces such as ERiC. Effective work also involves XML schemas, certificates, authentication, software documentation and the tax processes supported by German authorities. Specialists may work with ERP, accounting, payroll and document-management systems that prepare data for submission.
When companies need specialists
Companies often bring in freelance expertise during finance-system migrations, payroll changes, tax-process automation or audits of electronic submissions. External support is also useful when a team must replace a legacy connector, interpret interface changes or reduce manual work in recurring filings.
- A tax submission fails validation or returns unclear messages
- Finance data must move safely between several business systems
- A new payroll or accounting solution needs ELSTER connectivity
- Internal teams need documentation, testing or operational handover
Skills that matter
Strong ELSTER professionals understand both the technical interface and the tax process behind it. They can map source data to required schemas, manage certificates securely and distinguish errors in business data from errors in transmission. Experience with German tax workflows, data protection and controlled release processes is often essential, especially for companies operating in Germany.
What quality looks like
A dependable specialist begins with the filing types, source systems and approval responsibilities rather than treating ELSTER as a simple upload tool. They define test cases, protect credentials, log transmissions and make returned messages understandable to finance teams. Clear documentation and a practical handover matter because tax submissions are recurring business processes, not one-off integrations.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the questions that come up most around ELSTER.
ELSTER is Germany’s system for electronic communication between taxpayers, companies and tax authorities. It supports submissions such as VAT returns, payroll tax data, certificates and other tax-related declarations through Mein ELSTER or connected professional software.
ELSTER provides the official transmission channel, while accounting and ERP software usually prepares the underlying business data. Mein ELSTER is convenient for direct portal use, but an integrated solution can reduce manual entry and support recurring workflows when the company has suitable controls.
A strong ELSTER freelancer often combines interface knowledge with XML, API or connector work, accounting and payroll processes, certificate management and data protection. Experience with ERP systems, testing, monitoring and German tax terminology helps turn a technical connection into a reliable operational process.
The right level depends on the scope. A portal-based process review may need focused tax-workflow knowledge, while an integration involving ERiC, several source systems and automated validation calls for a specialist who has handled comparable transmission and troubleshooting work.
Most ELSTER configuration, documentation and integration work can be handled remotely with secure access and clear responsibilities. On-site sessions may still help during system cutovers, payroll workshops or handovers, and German-language communication is often valuable when coordinating with finance teams and tax specialists in Germany.
Ask for concrete examples of filing types, source systems, validation handling and certificate controls, without requesting confidential client data. A capable ELSTER professional can explain error diagnosis, testing, audit trails and the handover plan in terms that both technical and finance stakeholders understand.
Mein ELSTER is the current web portal within the broader ELSTER system. It is designed for direct online interaction, whereas companies may also use professional accounting or payroll software connected through official ELSTER components and interfaces.
Typical deliverables include a documented data mapping, configured submission workflow, test evidence, error-handling guidance and secure certificate procedures. An experienced ELSTER specialist should also provide operational documentation so finance teams can monitor transmissions and respond to returned messages after the engagement.
The average hourly rate of freelancers in Germany who have used ELSTER in their recent projects is 92 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 736 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers in Germany who have used ELSTER in their recent projects, 83% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 83% hold at least a Master's degree, and 33% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers in Germany who have used ELSTER in their recent projects have 26 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 1.5 years.
The most common languages among freelancers in Germany who have used ELSTER in their recent projects are German (100%), English (91%), and Spanish (18%).
The most common industries among freelancers in Germany who have used ELSTER in their recent projects are Government and Administration (91%), Information Technology (82%), and Banking and Finance (73%).
The most common business areas among freelancers in Germany who have used ELSTER in their recent projects are Information Technology (91%), Product Development (82%), and Project Management (73%).
Main locations of FRATCH Experts, who have recently used ELSTER
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
Berlin Hamburg Munich Cologne Frankfurt Stuttgart Dusseldorf Leipzig Dortmund Essen Bremen Dresden Hanover Nuremberg Request a free demo
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
