tonygill:
€ 180 is normal, but do not know about € 500. It depends on your annual income too. Try asking some steuerverein in your city, they charge generally lesser.
But is it a must to hire a Steuerberater(S

for filing tax-return while free-lancing?
Without SB one saves good amount of money charged by him/her + if you read some tipps on internet/from book, the return is usually much higher if done without SB.
It is much simpler with a Steuerberater when you are doing full freelancing, believe me. I have worked 5 years before starting freelancing and did my tax declaration by myself, with all the books and softwares on the market. When I started freelancing, I tried the first year and had to give up because there are a lot of things you should take care of, some many paragraphs you have to know and understand how they have to apply to you. So I decided to hire a Steuerberater and never looked back.
Another thing is that for some paperworks that need to be officially done, in case you are a freelancer, they will require an official letter from a Steuerberater to get things going, a simple example would be in case you are doing a Verpflichtungserklärung, in case you don't yet have an official return declaration for the previous year, you will be asked to submit a letter from a Steuerberater indicating how much you earned for the previous quarter, and they are a lot of such examples.
D.