Firm Profile, Philosophy and Consulting Fees
The German tax landscape continues to be characterised by a complexity that is unique in the world. This is by no means a myth:
Although only a vanishingly small proportion of the world's taxpayers live in Germany, honourable politicians such as Edmund Stoiber and Guido Westerwelle have in the past spoken of a proportion of the world's tax literature originating in Germany of between 60 and 80 percent. For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that a renowned German tax lawyer by the name of Albert Rädler once tried to prove this share by going into the impressive library of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) in Amsterdam with a simple tape measure and seeing how many of the 2,000 metres of shelves were taken up by books and journals dealing with German tax law.
We hope that our working methods are, at least by today's standards, more modern and scientific than those of the legendary Prof. Dr. Albert Rädler.
In any case, we meet today's complexity with what we consider to be the necessary specialism:
We have been advising you exclusively on international tax law and transfer pricing for more than ten years.
Only in this way we are able to act credibly as specialists.
Within this specialization, we consider ourselves generalists who advise on almost all areas of international tax law. In this way, we are able to recognise the necessary links between the individual areas that are so indispensable for tax law.
Recent developments in Germany put the focus on topics such as the relocation of functions or exit taxation.
Our firm focuses on pragmatism and cost transparency.
The background to this is the cost pressure that can be observed among all companies due to the universally lamented bureaucracy and the increasing number of laws. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 12 September 2023, the EU alone is now said to be responsible for around 57 percent of all bureaucratic reporting obligations.
Against this background, we try to keep the required compliance affordable for our clients.
Law firms specialising in international tax law regularly charge hourly rates of up to EUR 500 and more.
We guarantee hourly rates of less than EUR 200, although we have also charged hourly rates of up to EUR 500 for work carried out in the course of previous employment for leading law firms. As a client, please bear in mind that the fees you pay also cover the costs of the elaborate infrastructure and prestigious office buildings of large law firms.
Only in the special cases of § 9a paragraph 2 StberG tax advisors are allowed to agree on a performance related remuneration.
Within the legal provisions, we are happy to agree on a performance related fee between 5 and 40 percent of the tax saved/refunded, depending on the specific consulting effort and the expected tax saving or refund. Our fee therefore only arises as soon as success has been achieved, for example in the form of a reduced tax assessment.