Auto-rename tax assessments as PDF

A tax assessment is the document you look for twice in a lifetime: once inside the appeal period and once years later, when the tax office announces a change. In the downloads folder it is called Bescheid_FA.pdf or document.pdf. Filery Rename reads tax type, assessment period, assessment date and tax office from the document and builds a name that covers both searches.

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Before & After

Bescheid_FA.pdf 2024_ESt-Bescheid_2023_Finanzamt-Essen-Sued.pdf

Why the name carries two years

2024_ESt-Bescheid_2023_Finanzamt-Essen-Sued.pdf looks redundant at first glance, but it is not. The first number is the year of the assessment, the second the assessment period it applies to. The two almost never coincide: the 2023 income tax return is processed in 2024, and with queries in 2025 as well. Take only the period and you cannot tell the first assessment from the amended one. Take only the date and a search for tax year 2023 finds nothing. Putting the assessment year first makes the folder sort by processing stage — in the order the mail actually arrived.

Which fields a tax assessment provides

The header names the tax office with its location, the tax number and the assessment date. Below it, the subject line states the tax type with its period: income tax 2023, VAT 2023, trade tax base amount 2023. Then follow the assessment itself, the settlement, the explanatory notes and the instructions on legal remedies. Usable for the filename are tax type, period, assessment date and tax office. The tax number belongs in it only when the folder holds several taxpayers — in private filing it is superfluous, in a tax firm it is often the single most unambiguous field.

The assessment date as the deadline anchor

An appeal against a tax assessment is tied to a one-month period from notification, and when sent by post the assessment counts under German fiscal law as notified on the third day after posting. The starting point is therefore the date printed on the assessment — not the day you opened the envelope. That is exactly why this date belongs in the filename rather than the download or scan date. Filery takes the assessment date from the head of the document. For the folder this means: with files sorted chronologically, you see at a glance which assessment is still inside its period.

Amended assessments, prepayments and partial notices

The most common naming conflict arises when a second assessment arrives for the same tax year. Tax type and assessment period are identical, only the assessment date differs — which is why it has to be in the name, ideally to the day. It is also worth having a separate document type for amended assessments, so it stays visible which one is currently valid. Prepayment notices run the other way: issued during the current year for future quarters, they carry a period lying ahead. A separate type keeps them apart from the actual assessments.

Client filing in a tax firm

In a firm, the client comes before the tax type. Client number plus short name as a fixed field has proven itself, because the number holds the link to the bookkeeping while the name makes the file readable without a lookup. The pattern is then Client_AssessmentYear_TaxType_Period. Since Filery applies the pattern folder by folder, you set it up once per client folder and work through the incoming post as a batch. Forwarded to the client, the attachment then explains itself in the mailbox. Nothing is renamed before you confirm the batch.

How the assessment data is processed

Filery reads the PDF on your device and transmits the text content encrypted for AI analysis. The recognised metadata comes back — tax type, period, date, tax office — the renaming then runs on the device again, and the assessments themselves are not stored permanently. For firms that want to process client records only within their own contractual relationship, the Custom plan at 5 euros a month with your own API keys is the right route. Every suggestion can be reviewed before renaming, and the history in the app shows the original name.

FAQ

The period sits in the subject line right next to the tax type and is therefore easy to find. The tricky ones are assessments that combine several years in one document — there you should check in the preview which year ended up in the suggestion.

Yes. Those PDFs are digitally generated and contain a searchable text layer, so no text recognition is needed. For scanned paper assessments from older years you switch OCR on. There a clean scan of the header area pays off, since tax office, tax number and date all sit there.

A tax assessment regularly consists of the assessment, the settlement, explanatory notes and instructions on legal remedies. That is one document and is treated as one file. Filery evaluates the whole text, so details from later pages can feed into the suggestion.

Yes, that is the normal case. Because the tax type is its own field in the pattern, income tax, VAT and trade tax assessments for the same year end up next to each other and can still be told apart at a glance.

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