A German tax adviser's fee is not a market price, it is a legal range. The Steuerberatervergütungsverordnung sets a fraction of a table value for each item, so for a freelancer with €40,000 profit the same three jobs, profit calculation, income tax return and VAT return, can legally cost anywhere between roughly €400 and €2,400 gross. The middle sits near €1,400. The useful question is therefore not "what do you charge" but "which tenth do you apply, and why".
Most freelancers treat the adviser's invoice as weather. Almost every line is a fraction of a number in a table, and the law prints both.
The price list is a law
Fees for the core work of a Steuerberater follow the Steuerberatervergütungsverordnung (StBVV). The current version comes from the fifth amending ordinance, BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 105 of 8 April 2025, in force since 1 July 2025: value tables up by about 6 percent, and the Zeitgebühr moved from half hours to started quarter hours, now €16.50 to €41 each under § 13 StBVV. A five-minute phone call is a billable quarter.
One rule frames the rest: under § 4 StBVV your adviser may agree a fee above or below the table, but that agreement needs Textform and has to stand clearly apart from the engagement letter.
Three items, two tables
For a solo freelancer without employees, a normal year is three items.
The profit calculation. § 25 StBVV: 5/10 to 30/10 of a full fee from Tabelle B. The Gegenstandswert is the higher of total Betriebseinnahmen or Betriebsausgaben, "jedoch mindestens 17 500 Euro". For most of us that means revenue, not profit.
The income tax return. § 24 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 StBVV: 1/10 to 6/10 from Tabelle A, on the sum of your positive Einkünfte, minimum €8,000.
The annual VAT return. § 24 Abs. 1 Nr. 8 StBVV: 1/10 to 8/10 from Tabelle A, on 10 percent of your net revenue, minimum €8,000.
On top: postage and telecoms as a flat 20 percent capped at €20 (§ 16 StBVV), plus 19 percent VAT, which you reclaim as input tax.
The fraction inside each range is the adviser's call under § 11 StBVV: scope, difficulty, importance, your circumstances. The "Mittelgebühr", the middle of the range, is a professional convention for an average case, not a legal default, and it is the number worth agreeing before the engagement starts.
Example one: €40,000 profit
Revenue €52,000, expenses €12,000, no other income, no bookkeeping by the adviser. The values are our own calculation from the current tables.
- Profit calculation: Gegenstandswert €52,000, Tabelle B row up to €62,500, full fee €303. Range €152 (5/10) to €909 (30/10), middle €530.
- Income tax return: Gegenstandswert €40,000, Tabelle A full fee €1,125. Range €113 to €675, middle €394.
- VAT return: 10 percent of €52,000 is €5,200, below the floor, so €8,000 counts. Full fee €514. Range €51 to €411, middle €231.
Middle of every range, plus €20 expenses and VAT: about €1,400 gross. Bottom: about €400. Top: about €2,400. Same freelancer, same law, six times the price.
Example two: €100,000 profit
Revenue €130,000, expenses €30,000, otherwise as above.
- Profit calculation: Gegenstandswert €130,000, Tabelle B row up to €150,000, full fee €471. Range €236 to €1,413, middle €824.
- Income tax return: Gegenstandswert €100,000, Tabelle A row up to €110,000, full fee €1,689. Range €169 to €1,013, middle €591.
- VAT return: 10 percent of €130,000 is €13,000, Tabelle A full fee €655. Range €66 to €524, middle €295.
Middle of every range, gross: about €2,060. Bottom: about €583. Top: about €3,535.
Notice what did not happen. Revenue and profit rose two and a half times; the middle bill rose by roughly half. Anyone telling you an adviser gets unaffordable as you grow is describing bookkeeping, not the annual work.
The line you can remove yourself
Bookkeeping is billed monthly. § 33 StBVV allows 2/10 to 12/10 of a full fee from Tabelle C per month for keeping your books including coding the receipts, and 1/10 to 6/10 if you code them yourself. Twelve of those dwarf the annual items above.
That is the line a decent tool removes. Daniel Schöttler and Miguel Drescher, bankers at ING who advise founders, built their Freelance Unlocked session around the financial traps they see most often. Their rule is one business account from day one, because everything downstream is billed by the hour:
"The tax adviser works on a fee basis when you hand all of this over at the end of the year, and the hours they spend untangling one account will show up later as missing liquidity." (Daniel Schöttler and Miguel Drescher)
Schöttler's own story is why they open with reserves. As a young salesman he had a very good freelance year, bought the car, then the letter came:
"I completely forgot that I have to pay taxes." (Daniel Schöttler)
He sold the car at a loss and borrowed from his grandmother. The sentence to keep is what he says people tell themselves: "I'll sort it out with the tax office, or I have a tax adviser." Having an adviser is not the same as having the money.
So code the receipts yourself in a tool your adviser can read. Accountable (affiliate link) does EÜR, VAT returns and receipt coding for solo freelancers, and the 9am Freelancer Toolbox lists alternatives. What to set aside meanwhile is in our piece on tax reserves and prepayments.
When the adviser pays for himself
Most of the fee is deductible, but not all of it. The BMF ruling of 21 December 2007 splits the bill: profit calculation, bookkeeping and business tax questions are Betriebsausgaben, while transferring results into the return forms, tariff advice and anything private is not deductible at all. Ask for an invoice that separates the two. Below €100 of mixed costs a year, the tax office accepts your own allocation.
And an adviser earns the fee back in bursts: when prepayments are too high and need a Herabsetzungsantrag, when you cross a threshold (VAT registration, leaving the Kleinunternehmer scheme, hiring), and when the Finanzamt asks questions. Our list of tax mistakes freelancers make is largely a list of moments where a second opinion would have been cheap.
To find one, use the amtliches Steuerberaterverzeichnis, the official register kept by the chambers. Anyone not listed there is not a Steuerberater.
What to do on Monday
- Pull last year's invoice and find the fractions. If it only says "Steuerberatung", ask for an itemised one under the StBVV.
- Ask one question before the next engagement: which tenth do you apply to § 25 and § 24, and what would move it down? In writing.
- Run your own numbers through the two examples above.
- If bookkeeping sits on your invoice as a monthly item, price a tool against twelve of those months.
- Ask for the deductible and private parts to be shown separately on the next invoice.
An adviser is worth most when your year is complicated. If it is complicated because you are chasing too many small jobs, a free 9am profile puts you in front of DACH companies hiring freelancers directly. The broader tax picture is in our guide to taxes for freelancers in Germany.
This article is general information for practitioners and does not replace tax or legal advice. Quotes by Daniel Schöttler and Miguel Drescher translated from German.
Freelance Unlocked is co-organized by 9am together with Uplink and freelancermap. This article draws on the session of Daniel Schöttler and Miguel Drescher at Freelance Unlocked 2026. Watch the full talk above, and join us at the next edition: freelanceunlocked.com.
