kitkat64

  Good idea. I will ask.  Thanks!

Hi all. I searched the forum but didn't find anything (mostly because I have no idea what to search for). Here's my situation:   My husband got a job offer in the USA for an undetermined period of time (can be 6 months, can be 3 years). We own our own house near Munich. We do not want to rent it or have a house sitter. We have a fairly large yard/garden (grass, bushes, etc.) as well as numerous house plants and a pool that must be tended to. An empty house should also have someone coming around to flush the toilets, run the water in the sinks/etc.   Is there such a thing as a company who comes to take care of these things? I know we can hire someone to mow the grass on a regular basis, but the rest of the house stuff?   Thanks for your help!

Thank you HEM, but the Identifikationsnummer is not the Steuer Nr..  I found out that every individual has a Steueridentifikationsnummer. But, for a couple who have filed their taxes jointly in Germany, they share the Steuer Id but the Steuer Identifikationsnummer is individual. Here's where you can see that - directly on the statement from the Finanzamt. Each partner has the Id Nr, but they share the Steuernummer.     Frustrating because the information on the internet is conflicting. But, thank you everyone for answering.  Even, after all these years (I've been on here since 2004), this group has always come through for me.     

@PandaMunich - yes, that is the exact same statement that I found but then I kept Googling and found this:   Was ist der Unterschied zwischen Steuernummer und Steuer-Identifikationsnummer? Eigentlich sollte die Einführung der persönlichen Steuer-Identifikationsnummer das alte System der Steuernummer ablösen. Die Steuernummer wird vom für dich zuständigen Finanzamt vergeben. Wer in eine andere Stadt zieht, erhält eine neue Steuernummer des ortsansässigen Finanzamts. Du kannst sie bei deinem Finanzamt erfragen oder neu beantragen. Die Steuernummer wird in den kommenden Jahren abgeschafft. Die Steuernummer benötigst du nur für deine Steuererklärung.   So, it seems they truly are 2 different numbers. I think, because we file our taxes jointly in Germany, we have the same Steuernummer although we have different Stuer-IDs.    

Help! My better half, ever the procrastinator, is trying to complete the online Elster form tonight. We stumbled on the Tax Id/Steuer Id for me. Where do I find this number? I know this is not my Socialversicherungsnummer. That's a different number. There is a "Steuer-ID" number on my Lohnsteuerbescheinigung and I think that is the number (11 digits), but he says it is not.