German Tax Authorities to Train AI with Real Citizen Data (heise.de)

• Finance Ministry presents draft Annual Tax Act 2026
• AI training on real tax data allowed with one-year deletion deadline
• Research funding cap raised to 25 million euros

"The German Federal Ministry of Finance has published a draft bill for the Annual Tax Act 2026 that would allow tax authorities to use real personal tax data for training artificial intelligence systems. Previously, this was largely prohibited under GDPR data purpose limitation rules. The data must be permanently deleted no later than one year after the development measure ends. The AI will serve only as a support tool, with human decision-makers retaining final authority. Additionally, the cap on tax research funding for companies is raised from 15 to 25 million euros per year."