Ripped off by a Steuerberater

[oliven 0]

Hello!

 

Unfortunately, I'm reviving this thread with a new difficult situation...

I've been using the same accountant for ca. 7 years - I was never overly happy with their work - they don't answer emails, don't explain situations or options, have made mistakes in past declarations etc. I stayed with them as it's hard to find another English speaking tax advisor in Berlin and they knew my working history.

 

This year I ran into financial troubles, my freelancing (very regular in past years) came to a halt due to the virus. I told my accountant of the issues - I had a large tax bill for 2018, which I was able to pay off, but I was very anxious about how I could pay my tax for 2019, not yet filed.

Then I was audited - the FA found issues in two of my past tax years. Without consulting me, the accountant agreed on 'my mistakes' and passed me two new bills from the FA. They didn't explain anything to me. After a long silence and a Mahnung delivered to me after the amount was due, I had to contact the FA personally and resolve the issues - in the end it was quite simple, they needed more info from me, which I provided, that was it.

During this time the accountant was putting pressure on me to send my documents for 2019. I'd made it clear that I wasn't confident in proceeding with them & was not planning to file the declaration until later this year because I couldn't afford it. They assured me I could decide later, but to send them the documents now anyway. Eventually I did, despite being hesitant - again I made my position clear.

 

Now they've done the work, made the calculations for 2019, and have sent me an invoice due in 10 days, which I can't afford. Exactly what I wanted to avoid.

I clearly didn't want them to do this work without further discussion with me.

I don't want to sign off on the tax declaration for 2019 or work with them again.

 

What can I do about this invoice?

As many others on here, I can't afford a lawyer. Should I contact Steuerkammer Berlin?

 

Thank you in advance for any advice!

 

[White Rose of Yorkshire 1,096]

I really feel sorry for you in this situation but it is no use throwing good money after bad. The first thing anybody will ask you is why did you send the documents if you didn't want them to do anything. Can you prove that you gave instructions not to file your tax claim at the moment? Did you really believe they would just look at your documents or store them free of charge somewhere until you contacted them again? The best thing you can do is ask to pay the amount in monthly rates and try to get some sort of financial assistance.  

 

There are some goverment schemes to help self-employed people. Details about the latest scheme will be unveiled at the end of this week. 

https://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/topic/389106-financial-aid-for-self-employed-people/

 

 If you cannot apply for goverment aid for self-employed people, you can apply for Grundsicherung assistance but will be required to give details of your savings and the financial situation of anybody you live with.

 

These are really hard times and I wish you the best of luck.

[oliven 0]

Thank you for your response - I appreciate it.

I do feel really foolish for sending them anything at all. They said there was a deadline, even if I wanted to file in February 2021, they needed them in advance. 
It's all electronic and via phone, so I do have some record of my hesitations, but I did unfortunately place a certain amount of trust in them. 

 

I'd asked them to help me file a bridging application, as these had to be done through your accountant, but they said they had no time for that.

I'll look into these other options for support and see if there's something for me without proceeding with an accountant. Thank you

 

I imagine it will be hard to dispute this invoice, but beyond that, my concern is that they won't help me figure out a real solution for managing the tax bill over time. They're just going to pass on a list of unrealistic payment deadlines, which I'm not going to be able to meet. I just wish I knew what options there are for people facing these issues.

 

Thanks again and best of luck to everyone else out there

 

[mtbiking 1,894]

On 23/11/2020, 17:25:40, oliven said:

Hello!

 

Unfortunately, I'm reviving this thread with a new difficult situation...

I've been using the same accountant for ca. 7 years - I was never overly happy with their work - they don't answer emails, don't explain situations or options, have made mistakes in past declarations etc. I stayed with them as it's hard to find another English speaking tax advisor in Berlin and they knew my working history.

 

This year I ran into financial troubles, my freelancing (very regular in past years) came to a halt due to the virus. I told my accountant of the issues - I had a large tax bill for 2018, which I was able to pay off, but I was very anxious about how I could pay my tax for 2019, not yet filed.

Then I was audited - the FA found issues in two of my past tax years. Without consulting me, the accountant agreed on 'my mistakes' and passed me two new bills from the FA. They didn't explain anything to me. After a long silence and a Mahnung delivered to me after the amount was due, I had to contact the FA personally and resolve the issues - in the end it was quite simple, they needed more info from me, which I provided, that was it.

During this time the accountant was putting pressure on me to send my documents for 2019. I'd made it clear that I wasn't confident in proceeding with them & was not planning to file the declaration until later this year because I couldn't afford it. They assured me I could decide later, but to send them the documents now anyway. Eventually I did, despite being hesitant - again I made my position clear.

 

Now they've done the work, made the calculations for 2019, and have sent me an invoice due in 10 days, which I can't afford. Exactly what I wanted to avoid.

I clearly didn't want them to do this work without further discussion with me.

I don't want to sign off on the tax declaration for 2019 or work with them again.

 

What can I do about this invoice?

As many others on here, I can't afford a lawyer. Should I contact Steuerkammer Berlin?

 

Thank you in advance for any advice!

 

Contact PandaMunich in this forum. If you’re very lucky she’s not drowned in too much work and willing to take you as a client.

[oliven 0]

Thank you, mtbiking! I'll look into that - fingers crossed

[exsciolist 0]

On 5/10/2013, 11:35:24, PandaMunich said:

 

Sorry, but in Germany, if you go to a Steuerberater, you don't have to sign an explicit document stating their fee structure, because all of them have to charge the same by law, and people who go there know that they will be charged accordingly.

 

The law governing their fees is the Steuerberatervergütungsverordnung (StBVV), and, if no "value" for your case can be estimated, e.g. if you just asked her general questions, then she has to charge by the hour.

 

The hourly rates are set down in §13 StBVV:

 

• "30 bis 70 Euro je angefangene halbe Stunde"
  = 30€ to 70€ per started half-hour, i.e. 60€ to 140€ per hour, depending on how difficult she rates your questions

 

Only if she charged you more than 140€ an hour would she have had to have your explicit prior written consent to charging you more than set down in this law.

This consent is usually given by having you sign a Honorar-Vereinbarung stating those higher hourly fees.

 

So, in your case, since you didn't sign anything, only if she charged you more than 140€ an hour can you complain about her bill.

The correct institution to complain to in this case would be her local Steuerberaterkammer, just google Steuerberaterkammer and the name of the city she works in.

If a Steuerberater gives you incorrect information in writing, do you have to pay their bill?

We just hired a Steuerberater (one of the ones recommended by Patrick Ott on a thread here on Toytown) for an hour to clarify various tax issues that we have received conflicting information about. In response to our initial email he quoted his fees as 200 Euros an hour plus VAT, but he did not have us sign anything to that effect.

We talked to him via video chat for an hour, but he was unable to answer one of our primary questions, and he promised to follow-up by email. The info he provided in his follow-up email did not match what we have read here on Toytown, so we pushed back, providing a link to some relevant discussion here on Toytown. He wrote back with additional claims that seemed false, and we asked him to please send us a link to the relevant tax code supporting his claims. In response he said that we were indeed right, and the info he had sent us previously was technically wrong, but since he never actually reports any of this to the Finanzamt and since they never complain, it's in practice irrelevant.

But now that he's given us factually incorrect info in writing, I don't trust anything he told us on our phone call, and I have no desire to pay his bill (once we get it). Do we have to? Is the only option to sue him for false information?

I can give more details about exactly what he told us if that's relevant.

[optimista 5,885]

Maybe he will magically not send a bill. You could tell him what you said here and see what he says.