Federal Central Tax Office

The Federal Central Tax Office is a German federal agency responsible for administering various sections of the country's tax code. It was created out of its current parent agency, the Federal Ministry of Finance, on 1 January 2006 and has approximately 2,200 employees.

Beginning in July 2007, the BZSt began issuing a unique National identification number to every resident, replacing the formerly decentralized system. The BZSt also operates informational databases relating to the local tax offices.