Lost Your Own Steuer-ID? Here's the Free, Slow, Mail-Only Way to Get It Back
If you've lost your own Steuerliche Identifikationsnummer (Steuer-ID), the number never changes, so you're not applying for a new one, you're just requesting that the same permanent number be sent to you again. The BZSt (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) handles this either through an online request form or by letter, and all they actually need from you is basic personal information like your date and place of birth, no fee either way, and it's worth being suspicious of any website that tries to charge you for this. The part worth planning around: for data protection reasons, the BZSt only ever sends the number by post, never by phone or email, and processing can take up to 4 weeks, longer if they need to follow up with you.
The Official Rule
A Steuerliche Identifikationsnummer (Steuer-ID) is permanent, it’s assigned once and follows you for life, so losing track of your own number doesn’t mean applying for a replacement in the sense of getting a new one. What you’re actually doing is requesting that the BZSt (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) resend the same number that’s already on file for you.
The process itself is genuinely simple on the requesting end. You can submit a request either through the BZSt’s online input form or by letter, and either route works. What they need from you is limited to basic personal identifying information, your date and place of birth among it, rather than requiring you to gather and submit copies of ID documents before they’ll even process the request. This entire service is free of charge, and it’s worth being explicitly wary of any third-party website that offers to retrieve or “apply for” your Steuer-ID for a fee, the BZSt itself never charges for this.
The genuine constraint is speed, and it comes down to a deliberate data protection policy rather than a technical limitation. For data protection reasons, the BZSt only ever communicates your Steuer-ID by post, never by phone and never by email, regardless of how you submitted the request. This means the number goes specifically to your registered address, which is also effectively how your identity gets confirmed without needing document uploads upfront. Processing takes up to 4 weeks under normal circumstances, and can run longer if the BZSt needs to follow up with you about anything in your request, so this isn’t a same-week solution if you need the number urgently.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| How to request | Online via BZSt input form, or by letter |
| What you need to provide | Basic personal details (date and place of birth) |
| Cost | Free |
| How it's delivered | By post only, to your registered address |
| Processing time | Up to 4 weeks, longer with follow-up needed |
If you’d rather send a written request directly, the BZSt also accepts postal requests addressed to Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, Referat St II 7, 11055 Berlin, as an alternative to the online form, useful if you’d rather not use the digital portal or don’t have convenient access to it.
What Real People Say
The most repeated piece of advice from people who’ve been through this is simply patience with the postal-only delivery, since it’s easy to assume a purely digital process should produce a purely digital result, and the mail-only policy catches people off guard specifically because most other routine German bureaucracy has at least some digital delivery option somewhere in the chain. Practical tax guides covering this topic are consistent in flagging the free-of-charge nature explicitly, precisely because third-party sites offering to “retrieve” a Steuer-ID for a fee are common enough online that this warning shows up in nearly every guide on the topic.
Step by Step
- Confirm you actually need a resend, not a new number. Your Steuer-ID never changes, so this process retrieves your existing number rather than issuing a fresh one.
- Choose your request method: the BZSt’s online input form, or a written letter to their Berlin office, both are treated equally.
- Provide your basic personal details as requested, primarily your date and place of birth, no document uploads are typically required upfront.
- Confirm your registered address is current before submitting, since the number is mailed specifically there, not to any address you type into the form.
- Budget up to 4 weeks for the letter to arrive, and don’t expect a phone call or email in the meantime, that’s simply not how this process works.
- If you need the number urgently for a specific application already in progress, check with that specific office whether they can look it up internally rather than relying solely on a fresh BZSt request.
- Ignore any third-party site offering to retrieve your Steuer-ID for a fee. This service is free directly through the BZSt.
Compliance Note
This page explains the general process for requesting a resend of a lost Steuer-ID, but it is not tax or legal advice. Processing times and specific procedural details can change. For your specific situation, confirm current requirements directly with the BZSt.
FAQ & Common Pitfalls
Why does the BZSt only send it by post? Can't they just email it to me faster?
This is a deliberate data protection decision, not a technical limitation. Your Steuer-ID is a sensitive, permanent identifier tied to your entire tax record, and the BZSt treats sending it out as something that needs to go to a verified physical address rather than an inbox that could be compromised or simply typed incorrectly. There's no faster digital alternative built into the official process, and any service claiming to deliver it faster through another channel is worth treating with real suspicion.
Do we need to prove our identity with documents to request this?
The official process is lighter than you might expect, the request itself typically just needs basic personal details like your date and place of birth, rather than requiring you to submit copies of ID documents upfront. The actual identity verification happens implicitly through the fact that the number is mailed specifically to your registered address, which is why the postal-only delivery method matters as much as it does.
Is there any way to speed up the 4-week wait if we need the number urgently?
Not through the standard request process itself, the timeline is what it is, and it can run longer if the BZSt needs to follow up on anything in your request. If you need to prove your Steuer-ID urgently for something time-sensitive, like a Kindergeld or Elterngeld application already in progress, it's worth checking whether the specific office you're dealing with can look up your number internally through your existing tax file, rather than waiting on a fresh postal request, though this depends on that office's own process rather than being guaranteed.