Tech Glitch Halts Services at Various Tax Offices Across Multiple States
System Malfunction at Financial Buildings - Significant technical glitch encountered at financial institutions
Let's get down to it – a technical hiccup with a service provider is causing headaches for tax offices in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Saxony-Anhalt.
In these affected areas, it's a bummer that crucial apps for electronic data processing are currently out of reach. The ministries in Kiel and Bremen have confirmed the unfortunate situation, with over 120 tax offices reportedly impacted according to the Lower Saxony State Tax Office.
While a cyber attack as the culprit can pretty much be crossed off the list, the culprit appears to berooted in networkcommunication, a spokescop confirmed. As a result, access to tax processing has taken a hit, and for now, the processing of tax returns and objections is on hold.
The time frame for the outage remains uncertain.
As of now, citizens can only grab general tax info from the ministries. In-depth queries about personal tax matters can't be answered, and electronic tax return submissions via Elster are still doable, but let's cross our fingers and hope this mess gets resolved soon.
Restarting servers has led to a partial restoration of functions, the Lower Saxony state office's spokescop said.
- Tax offices' woes
- Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Saxony-Anhalt
- Network communication glitch
- Kiel, Bremen, Hannover, and more
Enriching the Story
This scenario played out on May 7, 2025, around 11:30 am local time, and the outage has been causing quite the ruckus ever since. A partial restoration of functions has been achieved, and as of May 9, the hardware responsible for the outage is being replaced, with commissioning and testing planned. The anticipated resolution of the issue is set for Monday, May 12, 2025[1][3].
The cause of the outage has been confirmed as not a cyber attack, with the operator Dataport ruling it out. Instead, the problem originates from a network communication issue at one of Dataport’s data centers in Germany. Dataport is responsible for secure and certified data centers that cater specifically to justice and tax systems across multiple federal states[1][3].
- The ongoing network communication glitch has caused disruptions in tax services across several states, including Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Saxony-Anhalt.
- The affected areas are experiencing issues with crucial apps for electronic data processing, confirmed by ministries in Kiel and Bremen, with over 120 tax offices reportedly impacted.
- While a cyber attack has been ruled out as the cause, the problem is rooted in network communication, as confirmed by a spokesperson.
- The outage's resolution is anticipated for Monday, May 12, 2025, following hardware replacement, commissioning, and testing.
