Reducing bureaucracy: Federal Cabinet approves basic register

With a central register and standardized national business numbers, the federal government aims to further reduce bureaucracy for companies. Businesses should benefit by eliminating the need to submit data multiple times.

This article is part of the special feature on bureaucratic madness in the skilled trades.

The German Federal Government has decided that a register of basic business data will be established and operated by the Federal Statistical Office . For unambiguous identification, companies included in the basic register will receive a standardized federal business identification number . The aim is to further reduce companies' reporting obligations by avoiding the multiple submission of master data to different registers.

Ready for operation by 2024

At the same time, this will contribute to improving the quality of register data and making its management more efficient through networking the registers . With this regulation, the German Federal Government is implementing one measure from its 22-point package for reducing bureaucracy . The basic register for company master data is scheduled to be operational by 2024. The government estimates the potential savings at a three-figure million-euro sum.

You might also be interested in:

Operations management

Product information for customers: Is there a digital way to do this?

Operations management

Plumbing, heating and air conditioning (SHK) industry on the reduction of heating subsidies

Craft policy

Craftsmen in Saxony oppose packaging tax

Many registers, little exchange

In Germany, there are approximately 120 separate business registers, most of which operate independently and generally do not exchange information . Many companies are listed in multiple registers – sometimes with overlapping data and different identification numbers. This system is prone to errors, time-consuming, and highly bureaucratic.

Source: Federal Government