Hacker News Reader

But in Germany we are also very good at finding funny abbreviations. For example, the state's tax software is called ELSTER. ELSTER stands for „ELektronische STeuerERklärung“, which, funnily enough, is a thieving bird. The english bird name is magpie.

View on HN

The name actually makes sense in both directions. As taxpayer you might see the tax office as thieving magpies. And as tax office you might see a software that is used to reduce the tax load of a taxpayer as the sneaky thief. With this in mind, it actually makes sense that someone on the tax receiver's end would greenlight such a name.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com