A German receives 1,700 letters from the tax authorities in one day by mistake because of the change to winter time

A German taxpayer, who lives near Hamburg, was the victim of a “technical error” caused by the switch to winter time.

The bug of the year 2024. Germany, often cited as an example for its rigor, seems to be equally so for the cumbersomeness of its administrative procedures. In any case, they are regularly singled out for their delay in digitalization and telecommunications. A German taxpayer understood this the hard way.

At the end of October, a resident of the town of Quickborn, near Hamburg, in northern Germany, applied for access to the online tax portal. He must then receive an access code by mail. But the request is processed by a computer system between 2 and 3 a.m. on the night of October 26 and 27, that is to say during the transition to winter time.

The taxpayer's request finds itself in a sort of time loop. So the system processes it repeatedly and no one is there to press the stop button. The processing of requests on the online portal is indeed “fully automated uniformly throughout Germany” and without human control, explains a spokesperson for the regional authorities.

The taxpayer receives exactly 1,700 times the same letter containing his access data. They are left at his door in ten yellow boxes, reported the Schleswig-Holstein regional newspaper. After his initial fright, the stunned user understood that it was a mistake. “At first I was really scared”he declares to Flensburger Tageblatt reports The Parisian. “Coming from the IRS, you don't expect a mistake. You're more likely to think you've made a mistake.”he adds.

The spokesperson for the regional authorities indicated that “the Ministry of Finance contacted the taxpayer and apologized to him”. A ministry which offered the man to collect the mail, but he refused according to the local newspaper, this mass of paper will be used to fuel his wood pellet heating.