ERiC Release 44 – Action Required in Your SAP System
With a technical change that may seem insignificant at first glance, ERiC Release 44 could become a problem for companies that use SAP for payroll processing—unless they take action in time.
What is ERiC?
ERiC stands for “ELSTER Rich Client” and is a software library developed by the German tax administration and made available free of charge to all software vendors. It is integrated into both commercial and public tax and payroll accounting programs—anywhere tax data is transmitted digitally to the tax authorities.
Here’s exactly what ERiC does: It checks the tax data for plausibility, compresses and encrypts it, and securely transmits it to the tax authority’s receiving servers. If the transmission is successful, ERiC can also generate a PDF confirmation.
The scale of this is remarkable: Over 100 million tax returns are filed via ERiC each year. The legal requirements for the library’s further development are correspondingly high—which explains why every release is carefully prepared.
What’s new in the latest ERiC Release 44?
Starting with ERiC Release 44, only Version 32 is permitted for retrieving data from the income tax statement (LStB) and the ELStAM. Version 31, which was used previously, is therefore no longer supported. This means that anyone who installs the update to ERiC Release 44 without first implementing the necessary SAP customizations risks error messages and disruptions in ELSTER communication.
Why is this release even coming out?
ERiC Release 44 is intentionally designed as a preparatory release only. It lays the technical foundation for ERiC Release 45, which will introduce the business changes for the 2026/2027 year-end. For the first time, SAP has consistently separated technical and business changes—a wise decision to ease the burden on the already time-sensitive year-end transition. The downside: This now creates an additional step that must not be overlooked.
What exactly needs to be done?
SAP is expected to provide the necessary adjustments, which must be imported into the system. These adjustments ensure that the system automatically uses the correct pickup version based on the ERiC version in use.
Important: These adjustments should be implemented before updating to ERiC Release 44. This is already possible—even if ERiC Release 43 is currently in use.
SAP plans to release ERiC Release 44 between mid-June and July 2026.
Our Conclusion
Anyone involved in SAP payroll processing—and who therefore relies on ELSTER functionality—should keep an eye on this release. It’s not a major update—but it’s one that could lead to unpleasant surprises if you’re not prepared.
Are you unsure whether your system is affected, or would you like to entrust the implementation to professionals? Contact us—we have in-depth knowledge of SAP HCM and can guide you through exactly these kinds of customizations.
