Big Data specialists for the tax office

3.2 terabytes of data, 49 million files, documents from 271,000 (bogus) companies - it is these dimensions that are pushing the tax investigators of the Kassel II tax office to the limits of what has been possible so far. Just a few hundred meters from the university's central campus on Holländischer Platz, a team of eight investigators is fighting its way through the data contained in the so-called Panama Papers.

The Federal Criminal Police Office purchased the data carriers from a whistleblower two years ago, shortly after a worldwide consortium of investigative journalists had reported on a huge network of bogus companies: they revealed how a Panamanian law firm helped wealthy clients avoid or evade taxes with the help of letterbox companies. The state of Hesse has taken the lead in evaluating the Panama Papers for tax purposes and has set up its own investigation team for this purpose at the Kassel II-Hofgeismar tax office. Its task is to search the Panama Papers and hand over relevant cases to the relevant tax authorities in Germany and abroad.

In the future, graduates of the University of Kassel could participate in the evaluation of such data leaks. This is because the state of Hesse recently began offering a dual study program in IT forensics/tax investigation in cooperation with our university's Department 16. This means: alternating practical phases at the tax office and studies at the university. The first students - four women and one man - began their bachelor's degree in computer science last October at the Wilhelmshöher Allee location.

"Of course, we already work with IT experts and strong support from intelligent computer programs," says Andreas Bauer, head of tax investigation at Tax Office II, "but our demand will increase massively in the coming years. That's why we're securing highly qualified people with the dual study program." Nor is it just about spectacular cases like the Panama Papers, he said. Moritz Josten, deputy spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, speaks of a "flood of electronic data" that is now accumulating at all investigative authorities, but especially at tax offices. Bauer explains: "Think of digital cash books, tax returns, and so on. With ordinary computer programs, you quickly reach your limits. We continuously need the latest methods and people who know how to use them."

"The dean's office paved the way for us."

Within Hesse, the tax office at Kassel's Altmarkt is intensively engaged in processing digital mass data. Nearly 50 tax investigators and IT forensics specialists form a powerful unit there. In addition, a research center for the use of artificial intelligence in tax administration was recently established. So it was only natural that the state of Hesse should also locate its new dual study program in Kassel - thus further concentrating the IT expertise of Hesse's tax authorities at the Fulda Bridge.

But there were also other good reasons: "The University of Kassel is an excellent partner for us with a very good range of courses in computer science," praises Bauer. "On top of that, the dean's office of the department was open to our plans and paved the way for us - right down to giving us advice on what to look out for when selecting applicants."

Lara Yörük, a student advisor in the Finance Office and the person responsible for the project, agrees with the praise: "It's a characteristic of the Electrical Engineering/Computer Science Department that it's always open to new approaches, especially when it comes to attracting good students to the university." Yörük knows what she's talking about. The computer scientist herself graduated from the University of Kassel in 2017 and then worked as a research assistant for Prof. Dr. Martin Lange in the Formal Methods department. "Another strength of the department is the close exchange between disciplines; that's very important in computer science. It's about not only thinking in one direction, but also seeing the interfaces. That's exactly what we expect from our students as well."

Marina Jaspers (name changed) is among those who are expected to increase the digital clout of the tax office in a few years. She already had three years of computer science classes in school and took a liking to it. In her view, the overall package of the new study program was right: "The advantages for me are the location in Kassel with the University of Kassel, which initially offers an undergraduate computer science program without specialization, the practical relevance during the semester breaks and the prospects in the public sector. If I have any questions or problems, there are not only various points of contact at the university, but also at the Finance Office, where our student advisor was able to answer questions that arose in advance in detail, for example about creating a timetable, and thus made it easier for me to get started."

Jaspers experienced the first few weeks at the university as varied and promising, but also challenging: "The computer science program seems to me to be very multi-layered and wide-ranging. In the first days of lectures, helpful but also demanding professors introduced themselves. They are interested in us students being curious and learning the new contents together. A lone wolf will probably have a rather hard time in this degree program."

Team play definitely helps, because a dual study program is not easy. Unlike many other models of dual study elsewhere, the young people at the University of Kassel are enrolled as normal. They do not get a discount on the exams. In addition to their studies, they complete practical phases in blocks during the lecture-free periods, in this case at the tax office. There may be synergy effects, for example when project work for the studies is done as part of the training. Nevertheless, the double burden over the long haul can sometimes wear on one's strength. On the other hand, the start of a career is more or less already accomplished and the transition from university to a career is paved.

Good systems recognize connections

The state of Hesse plans to send more cohorts of dual students to the university in the next few years. The department's dean's office is pleased. "We have very good experience with dual studies. As a rule, these are highly motivated students who often perform visibly above average despite the higher workload," says Dean of Studies Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Zipf. And Dean Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Bangert adds: "Studying computer science with us opens up a wide range of career opportunities, including sub-areas of electrical engineering. We are particularly pleased that we are able to recruit students who already have a clear idea of their professional future. With us, they can freely pursue their study interests for this and follow their inclinations." In which direction the young people will ultimately specialize in the course of their IT studies, the state of Hesse does not make any specifications for this with its dual study program: "We deliberately want a broad spectrum of experts," explains tax investigator Bauer. Because the field of application will also be broad, up to and including the programming of their own systems.

As a freshman, Marina Jaspers still has time to develop specialties. After the first introductory courses, she finds the topic of neural networks very exciting. "I'm also interested in the areas of cybersecurity and methods for evaluating large amounts of data." In other words, exactly what her colleagues are applying to the evaluation of the Panama Papers; artificial intelligence is already being used here. For example, it can be used not only to search through documents by name, but also to establish cross-references between documents. Good systems can learn whether and when certain names appeared together in certain contexts. Even different spellings are no longer a problem.

But despite even the most intelligent programs, the work remains tedious. Last spring, Finance Minister Thomas Schäfer said that in the past few months, some 350,000 documents had been forwarded to the relevant tax authorities in Germany and abroad, and more than 4.3 million euros in taxes had been assessed across Germany. So there is still enough work left for the future graduates of the University of Kassel.

Information about the dual study program at the University of Kassel:

www.uni-kassel.de/go/duales-studium

Text: Sebastian Mense, publik 4/2019