Why not SaaS?
If you're evaluating Elmar.tax, you might wonder why we don't offer a hosted cloud version. The answer is straightforward: ERiC's licensing terms prohibit it.
The regulatory reality
The ELSTER ERiC library is provided by the German tax authorities under strict licensing terms. These terms explicitly prohibit operating ERiC as part of a SaaS or portal solution (Portallösung). This isn't a grey area — it's a clearly stated restriction.
Any vendor offering ELSTER submissions as a hosted cloud service is either:
- Operating outside ERiC's licensing terms
- Using a different (non-ERiC) integration path with its own trade-offs
- Limiting their service to specific regulated use cases
Our approach: infrastructure you control
Rather than working around the constraint, we designed Elmar.tax to embrace it:
- Runs inside your infrastructure — as a Docker container or embedded Java SDK
- Your certificates stay with you — no third-party certificate handling
- No data leaves your network — except to official ELSTER servers during submission
- Full operational control — you decide where, when, and how it runs
This isn't a limitation — it's a compliance advantage.
Why this is better for you
Security: Your tax data and ELSTER certificates never touch a third-party server. There's no shared infrastructure, no multi-tenant risk.
Compliance: You can demonstrate to auditors exactly where tax data is processed and stored. No cloud vendor dependency to explain.
Reliability: No dependency on an external service's uptime. Elmar runs when your infrastructure runs.
Control: Update on your schedule. Configure to your needs. No vendor lock-in on the operational layer.
How it works in practice
- Pull the Docker image into your registry
- Deploy alongside your existing services
- Call the REST API from your application
- Tax data flows directly from your infrastructure to ELSTER
No cloud hop. No third-party data processing. No licensing grey area.
Read more about the architecture or check the FAQ for additional questions.