Where can I receive personal assistance with questions about my tax return?
According to the Tax Advisory Act, professional assistance in tax matters may only be provided by authorised persons and associations. These can be, for example, tax advisors, whose high fees based on the Tax Advisor Fees Ordinance are economically sensible, especially for more complex tax cases, and are covered by liability insurance.
Providers of tax software, on the other hand, are not allowed to answer individual tax questions and must limit themselves to solving technical problems. Nevertheless, the extensive online guide from SteuerGo can help you with many practical questions as a tax manual.
In some cases, you may receive helpful free answers from the staff at your tax office for simple tax questions, but these are non-binding.
If, on the other hand, you need reliable information on more complex issues, you can apply for binding information. To do this, you must submit in writing a detailed description of the situation, formulate the question, and provide your own legal opinion so that the tax officer essentially only has to answer yes or no. Since 2007, a fee has been charged for binding information, the amount of which does not depend on the complexity of the question but on the value of the tax impact, the so-called value of the matter. The tax offices apply the table for court fees in accordance with § 34 GKG.
The minimum fee for a value of the matter of 10.000 Euro is 241 Euro, and the maximum fee for a value of the matter of 30 million Euro is an astonishing 109.736 Euro. In one case, the tax office demanded this maximum fee, even though the workload was perhaps 150 to 180 working hours, corresponding to a time fee of only 15.000 to 18.000 Euro (FG Schleswig-Holstein of 1.10.2010, 1 K 282/07).
Important: The fee is payable not only if the requested information is provided but also if the tax office gives a negative response, refuses information for formal reasons, or if the citizen withdraws their application.
