Submitting tax returns and receipts electronically (ELSTER)

No. It is sufficient if one of the two registers. This is because only the person who transmits the data is authenticated. As long as no objections to the contrary are raised, the tax office assumes during further processing that the content of the tax return is known to both spouses/life partners and that an income tax return that is legally valid for both is available.

Yes. By the way, you can also decide which security procedure seems most suitable to you by choosing the type of login. You can find technical information on the individual procedures under Data security and IT security

When registering with your personal identification number, you can create only one user account.
When registering with your organization tax number, you can only create 200 user accounts per tax number with certificate file. In combination with security stick or signature card, the maximum number of user accounts per tax number increases to 1000.

If you have lost your certificate file, a new registration is required. It is currently not possible
to transfer the data stored under the old user account to the new user account. Please note that in case of a registration with your personal IDNr. only one active user account per
IDNo. can exist. Before you can carry out a new registration, you must first delete the old user account.
delete the old user account. To do this, go to "User account service" in the navigation and select "Delete user account".

You cannot log in to My ELSTER without your password. If the password is irretrievably lost, please register again, because a new password cannot be issued to you. When logging in with a certificate file, there is no limit to the number of failed attempts. Your certificate will not be locked automatically. If you are using a security stick and have registered without ElsterAuthenticator, please note that after entering the wrong password three times, the certificate on the stick will be locked and thus unusable. Unlocking is not possible. Please register again. When registering with a security stick and ElsterAuthenticator, a PUK was generated that can be used to unblock the PIN. If you are using a signature card, the number of possible failed attempts at password / PIN entry depends on your signature card. If your certificate is blocked, this does not automatically delete your user account in
My ELSTER is deleted. For security reasons, you should delete your account. Please note, however, that all data in your user account will be irrevocably lost.