Tax Advisor Demystifier

Tax advisors do not bill freely by feel but according to the tax advisor fee regulation, StBVV for short. That is good because it prevents arbitrariness - and bad because it makes the invoice unreadable for laypeople. The demystifier takes the regulation apart and explains, position by position, what you pay how much for.

The core of every fee is the object value. It is usually based on a reference figure like your income or your turnover. From the object value, one of the StBVV tables yields the full fee. The demystifier knows the relevant tables - Table A (advisory table under Section 13 StBVV) and Table B (closing table under Section 14 StBVV) - and assigns your case to the right bracket.

Over the full fee lies the tenth rate, also called the frame fee. For many services the advisor may bill within a range, for example from 1/10 to 6/10. The middle of the range is the so-called middle fee, considered appropriate when your case is average. The demystifier shows you the range and where your advisor's invoice sits within it - so you can tell whether it was billed at the upper end.

The tool works through common services concretely: the income tax return, the cash-basis profit statement, the annual accounts, ongoing bookkeeping, VAT advance returns. For each it shows the matching table, the typical tenth range and the plausible amount, so you can hold your real invoice against it.

Just as important is the honest question: what can you do yourself? The demystifier tells you which tasks are well doable yourself with a little familiarization - a simple employee return, a basic EUER, gathering documents - and where an advisor genuinely creates value, such as complex structuring, tax audits or voluntary disclosures. Not a sales pitch, but a sober assessment.

Finally comes the fundamental question of whether a tax advisor is worth it for you at all. For an employee with straightforward circumstances the cost is often higher than the benefit; for a self-employed person with ongoing bookkeeping and deadlines the calculation looks different. The demystifier helps you make this judgement with real numbers instead of gut feeling.

The StBVV values in the tool are simplified to the most important tiers and serve as orientation. The demystifier is neither tax nor legal advice and does not replace a binding fee review. It gives you the vocabulary and the ballpark figures to talk to your tax advisor about the invoice on equal terms.