1. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register Federal Statistical Office Germany Information from Administrative Data for Business Register Session 5: Projects on Improvements for Business Registers Wiesbaden Group on Business Registers Paris, 26 November 2008 Anke Rink

2. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 2 Outline short term administrative data for improving quality of the business register new source: Electronic Commercial Register (EHUG)

3. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 3 Short term administrative data for improving quality of the business register Approach today: yearly delivery of administrative data for a certain reference date Approach in future: delivery of short term data, e.g. monthly

4. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 4 Advantage of short term data: more up-to-date information information on seasonal changes

5. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 5 For which characteristics can we use these data? short term changes of identifiers, e.g. tax number integration of new units in BR more up-to-date closing of units in BR more up-to-date changes in characteristics

6. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 6 Electronic commercial register (EHUG) The electronic commercial register contains all units of the commercial register. In the commercial register with the exception of very small units, all enterprises have to be registered. The commercial register contains around 1.5 Mio active enterprises. Recently, these data have been stored only on paper.

7. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 7 For which purpose can we use EHUG? We can update Commercial Register identifier address data legal form starting date of business activity

8. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 8 Commercial Register identifier The commercial register contains 1.5 Mio active enterprises with their commercial register identifier and another 2.2 Mio for closed companies. Only 20% of all active enterprises (750 000 from 3.5 Mio) in the business register have recorded a commercial register identifier from other administrative sources.

9. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 9 Address data All enterprises have to communicate changes in their address to the commercial register. The time lag of this information compared with other administrative sources is very small. These domicile addresses are legally valid.

10. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 10 Legal form In the commercial register the legal form is correctly coded. Other administrative data can have transcription errors or are not up to date.

11. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 11 Starting date of business activity In the BR the starting date of business activity is not always available. In the commercial register, the date of the first registration is stored, this is equivalent with the starting date.

12. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 12 EHUGBR EHUG → BR clear match 1 : 1 ambigous match 1 : n no match 1 : 0 new BR units updating of the characteristics: trade number legal form address matching by commercial register identifier resolving matching by address clear matchno match Integration of data

13. © Federal Statistical Office, Business Register 13 Thank you for your attention! Anke Rink Federal Statistical Office of Germany phone.: + 49 611 / 75-3578 email: anke.rink@destatis.de