Hi,
I got following mail from my earlier tax consultant.
He told that time that he will charge me around €300.
After 2 months I again contacted him and asked how much returns I can expect
He told me that He needs to see all my documents so I scanned documents and send to him by email.
Now he prepared the documents and posted it to me (not on my request) for signing
Now after around 2 Weeks I got Invoice to pay 580 euros.
I replied to mail saying that I am not interested in filing tax with your firm since it is too costly for me and I got followinh mail:

I haven't signed the returns or any document (power of attorney)
I already filed the tax returns in €100 with some other consultent.

Please Advice me what action I should take in this regards
What I should reply to this mail?

Appreciate your any and all help in this regards

Mail:
Thank you for your E-mail.

After you provided the relevant tax returns to us we prepared your income tax return 2005 upon your request. The tax return was delivered on May 12, 2005. After finalising our work on May 16 you indicated that the expected fee of € 500 plus German VAT will not be accepted. This protest after receiving the output of our work can unfortunately not be accepted by us.

Please note, that we already offered you special rate of € 500 plus VAT. Following German law in case a special rate is not accepted or agreed the so called "Steuerberatergebührenverordnung" will be applicable. The "Steuerberatergebührenverordnung" is a German law determining the fees for tax consulting services in case a specefic fee agreement had not been made. Following the "Steuerberatergebührenverordnung" a fee of approximately € 700 plus VAT can be charged by us.

In case you do not accept our invoice please sent us the invoice back and we will issue a new invoice following the "Steuerberatergebührenverordnung".

As our fee falls due immediately after issuing the invoice we expect your payment until end of next week on our account. If we will not receive either the original invoice sent to you or the amount of € 580 on our account until Friday nex week we will start a formalised reminder process. To avoid furhter cost we recommend to pay in due time.

Please feel free to contact an other tax advisor for the tax filing for 2006.

Kind regards

Hello GCRAM,

After knowing that the fees is 300 Euro, you did send him your files for tax calculation, right?

Did you ask him if this calculation is for free or you have to pay 300 euro already??

This is very typical foreigner, compare here and there, find something cheaper and go for it -> not responsible! But in this case you found a crook too, so good luck.

as far as I know, the letter of attorney is required so he can represent you to tax office, this has nothing to do with you ask him to do something for you or not.

The fact is that you have asked him to calculate your tax (proved by your mail + all the files), so you may have to pay something.

100-300 euro is acceptable -> considering the english service, but rarely 500-700.

go to lawyear for advice!

§ 24 [1] Steuererklärungen
(1) Der Steuerberater erhält für die Anfertigung

1.
der Einkommensteuererklärung ohne Ermittlung der einzelnen Einkünfte
1/10 bis 6/10


einer vollen Gebühr nach Tabelle A (Anlage 1); Gegenstandswert ist die Summe der positiven Einkünfte, jedoch mindestens 6 000 Euro;



Tabelle A (Beratungstabelle)
Gegenstandswert
Volle Gebühr (10/10)

Euro
Euro

bis
300
25


bis
600
45


bis
900
65


bis
1 200
85


bis
1 500
105


bis
2 000
133


bis
2 500
161


bis
3 000
189


bis
3 500
217


bis
4 000
245


bis
4 500
273


bis
5 000
301


bis
6 000
338


bis
7 000
375


bis
8 000
412


bis
9 000
449


bis
10 000
486


bis
13 000
526


bis
16 000
566


bis
19 000
606


bis
22 000
646


bis
25 000
686


bis
30 000
758


bis
35 000
830


bis
40 000
902


bis
45 000
974


bis
50 000
1 046


bis
65 000
1 123


bis
80 000
1 200


bis
95 000
1 277


bis
110 000
1 354


bis
125 000
1 431


bis
140 000
1 508


bis
155 000
1 585


bis
170 000
1 662


bis
185 000
1 739


bis
200 000
1 816


bis
230 000
1 934


bis
260 000
2 052


bis
290 000
2 170


bis
320 000
2 293


bis
350 000
2 347


bis
380 000
2 399


bis
410 000
2 450


bis
440 000
2 499


bis
470 000
2 547


bis
500 000
2 594


bis
550 000
2 663


bis
600 000
2 730







vom Mehrbetrag bis 5 000 000 Euro je angefangene 50 000 Euro
120







vom Mehrbetrag über 5 000 000 Euro bis 25 000 000 Euro je angefangene 50 000 Euro
90







vom Mehrbetrag über 25 000 000 Euro je angefangene 50 000 Euro
70

hi
can you reply in English
At least conclusion
Thanks a lot in advance

i can't make any conclusion without knowing income you had, because fees of tax consultant are calculated based on amount of your annual income.

the law says that for income tax declaration a tax consultant charges from 0,1 till 0,6 of complete fee depending on difficulty of concrete case. complete fee depends on your annual income; i included corresponding table in my previous answer (you see every time three lines there: 1st: "bis" - means "till"; 2nd: annual income; 3rd: complete fee). for example if you had 65k euros as annual income, tax consultant fee can vary from 112,30 till 673,80 euros without MwSt.

i am not very familiar with question which fee is ordinary there and when tax consultant can charge max fee because of too difficult case, but i would guess that your case is not extraodinary and in normal case coefficient of 0,3 should be applied (probably 0,4? correct me if i am wrong). that would mean that tax consultant fee should be equal to 336,90 (1123 x 0,3) euros + 16% MwSt for annual income from 50.001 till 65.000 euros