After scanning their annual slip using their phone and answering simple questions through a conversational interface, Taxfix calculates the maximum tax refund and submits it directly to the tax authorities. The Swedish Investor Creandum and the Swiss VC Redalpine have invested a total of 2 million Euros into the vision of Taxfix.
Mathis Büchi, founder and CEO of Taxfix, explains as follows: “Our vision is to redefine how people deal with taxes – without forms, wasted time or headaches. In Germany, millions of people are missing out on an average tax refund of 935 Euros. The average return takes over 6 hours to complete, and filling out the tax forms correctly always requires a certain degree of tax knowledge that most people don’t have.
We solve this problem by guiding the user through a small personalised set of simple questions in 25 minutes. Our intelligent algorithms are making sure that the users’ information is correct and complete, and that they receive their maximum refund. The tax technology engine we have built for this process is quite unique and lays the foundation for scalability and internationalisation.”
Germany offers great market potential, accounting for 29 Million tax returns of the 200 million private tax returns in the EU filed every year. It is of particular interest that an estimated 6 million German taxpayers do not file their return even though they could get back an yearly refund of 935 euros. According to a study by the Cologne Institute of Economic Research, this is partly due to the complicated and time-consuming process of filing taxes.
How Taxfix works:
With the Taxfix app every iPhone owner can easily file their taxes using the app within 25 minutes. By comparison, German taxpayers spend more than 6 hours on average filing their tax return with other solutions. Using Taxfix is quick and easy. After taking a picture of the German annual pay slip, the user answers interview-style questions using the Taxfix assistant to gather all required information free of charge. Once the questions have been successfully answered, the Taxfix app calculates the tax refund possible for the user. Then, the users can submit their tax declaration directly to the tax authorities. In case the refund happens to be under 50 euros, Taxfix is free of charge. The tax refund is then processed as usual by the user’s tax authority.
Taxfix only transmits data in encrypted form, both to its own servers and to the tax authorities, ensuring user data is kept safe and secure.
About Taxfix GmbH:
The Berlin tech company was founded by Mathis Büchi and Lino Teuteberg and launched its service in 2017 in Germany. The two previously co-founded Smallpdf – a document startup with over 11 million monthly users. The Taxfix team consists of more than 20 employees with technical, tax, and financial background. These experts ensure that all contents of the app and the website are constantly kept completely up-to-date and in line with tax law. The company is supported by its investors Creandum and Redalpine.
Press contact:
Taxfix GmbH
Torsten Elsner
[email protected]