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0 pointsandrew_eit4y ago0 comments

This reminds me of the most amazingly archaic interaction I had with the Finance Ministry.

They notified me by post that I needed to provide them with some information on their online tool. Here was the process: 1) Go to link, fill in form with personal detailed. Print, sign and post. 2) Receive a login password via post after 1-2 weeks 3) Login and do the the thing they asked.

Honestly why bother with an online system, just send me the form and I'll send it back. Done.

Also, applying to universities here also involves sending NOTARISED copies of all your documents, via post, along with the application. I don't think I've ever in my life applied to university by sending a thick brown envelope.

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nybble414y ago

That reminds me of the signup process for the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), which is used for things like estimated tax payments in the US. It's not quite as bad since you don't actually need to print & post the form, but they do insist on snail-mailing a code you need to complete the signup process, so registration takes much longer than necessary. All this to set up an account so that you can pay them!

The reasoning is probably the same in both cases: They want to know that you can receive mail at the given address. There are faster ways to confirm that, though, such as uploading an image of a recent utility bill in your name.

andrew_eitOP4y ago

Exactly!

And the irony (for me at least) is, that corruption and fraud is still rampant in Germany (e.g. during corona, tons of fake PCR tests being billed to govt. Pharmacies issuing fake vaccine certificates).

This solves nothing.

t0suj44y ago

They don't need to improve their registration system. The government simply locks you up if you give up in the process. They don't risk anything if you fail to register.

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