On 18 October 2024 the Bundesrat approved the fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act, the Viertes Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz. Its changes reach everyday life. Accounting records must now be kept for eight years instead of ten. German citizens no longer have to fill in a registration form when they check into a hotel. Many transactions no longer need a handwritten signature. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said the law would relieve the economy by almost one billion euros a year.