In depth · Changing advisers
Changing your tax adviser and what it actually involves.
A change is less work than most people assume. The records come to you as of right, the new adviser organises the rest — here is the order it happens in.
Why at all
The worry is bigger than the work.
What most often holds up a change of tax adviser is not the work involved but the worry about it: that records will be held back, that deadlines will be missed, that something confidential will get out.
The last of those is unfounded — tax advisers are bound to secrecy under § 57 Abs. 1 StBerG and § 203 StGB, and that does not end when the engagement does. The first two are reasonable, and both are solvable: you have a right to the release of your records, and we handle the dealings with the outgoing adviser.
The reasons clients give for coming to us repeat themselves: communication that does not work in a German-French setting; unexpected back payments; an adviser who does not understand head office. None of them improves by waiting.
The sequence in seven steps
From the first conversation to the first invoice posted. What you have to do yourself is in steps 2 and 3 — everything else runs through us.
- 1Initial conversationYou introduce your business, we explain how we work and who would be looking after you. After that both sides know whether it fits — without obligation and at no cost.
- 2Notice to the outgoing adviserGermany has no statutory notice period for a tax engagement. What governs it is your contract alone — read it before you give notice. Writing, and proof that it arrived, are advisable.
- 3New engagement letterIt sets out the advice required, who does what and the fees. We record who is responsible for which deadline — that is the point at which changes otherwise go wrong.
- 4Power of attorneyThe power of attorney lets us act for you before the Finanzamt: receive assessment notices, extend deadlines, answer queries. Without it, official post keeps going to you or to the previous adviser.
- 5Handover of dataWe request the records from the outgoing adviser — with DATEV through the standard client data transfer form, with other software by arrangement. You do not have to call anyone.
- 6Access and softwareWe keep your books in your system or in ours — your choice. Access is set up, and we will train your staff on request.
- 7Start of the engagementFor the first few weeks there is a fixed weekly call until the routines are settled. After that it runs as normal business with your named contact.
What you are entitled to
The release of your records is not a favour from the outgoing adviser but your right. Three provisions carry it:
- Release of the records — § 66 Abs. 2 StBerG. Whatever the tax adviser received from you or on your behalf has to be handed over on request. The same applies to records kept electronically (§ 66 Abs. 4 StBerG). Excluded are the correspondence between you and them, records you already hold in original or copy, and their internal working papers.
- What they obtained beyond that — §§ 675 Abs. 1, 667 BGB. The engagement is a paid management of another's affairs. What the adviser obtained from that work therefore also has to be handed over — assessment notices and correspondence with the Finanzamt, for instance.
- Confidentiality — § 57 Abs. 1 StBerG, § 203 StGB. It continues beyond the end of the engagement. The worry that giving notice might let something confidential out is groundless.
The right belongs to you, not to the new firm — the outgoing adviser owes us nothing. In practice that changes nothing: with your power of attorney we request the records and agree the handover.
Worth knowingWhere fees are still outstanding, the outgoing adviser may withhold the records until they are settled (§ 66 Abs. 3 StBerG) — but only so far as withholding them is not unreasonable. It is the most common reason a handover stalls, and the only one you can clear out of the way in advance yourself.
When is the right moment?
- During the yearOften the better moment: the new adviser then prepares the accounts for the year just ended and knows the books before it matters.
- At the year endThe obvious choice, but a tight one. The outgoing adviser then has every set of accounts on the desk at once — and the departing client's rarely comes first.
- During an auditPossible, but not ideal. Where a tax audit is running, we arrange the handover so that the auditor has one point of contact throughout.
You
- Read the contract and give notice
- Sign the new engagement letter and the power of attorney
- Settle any outstanding fees with the previous adviser
FRADECO
- Contact with the previous adviser and the request for the records
- Handover of the data, the chart of accounts and the brought-forward figures
- Filing the power of attorney with the Finanzamt, taking over the deadlines
- Setting up access and, on request, training
Frequently asked
About changing your tax adviser.
Will our current adviser find out that we are talking to you?
No. The duty of confidentiality under § 57 Abs. 1 StBerG and § 203 StGB already covers the conversation itself, not only the day the engagement begins. What you tell us stays with us — including if you decide in the end not to change.
We appear before your current adviser only once you have given notice and given us authority. You decide when that happens.
Who files the preliminary VAT return for the month of the change?
That is settled in advance, not worked out along the way. The usual arrangement is a cut at the end of a month or a quarter: the outgoing adviser closes the current filing period and we take over from the next one. Who is responsible for which return is recorded in the engagement letter.
You do not need to reapply for a permanent filing extension. Under § 46 UStDV the Finanzamt grants the extension to the business — it attaches to your company, not to the firm, and continues across the change. We check whether one is in place as part of the handover.
What happens to the payroll that is already running?
The payroll is handed over at a month end, never mid-month. The outgoing adviser runs and files the last month in full, and we take over from the following one.
What matters here is not the master data but the cumulative year-to-date figures — gross pay, wage tax withheld, social security contributions, allowances and absences. Without them the annual wage tax certificate does not add up at the year end and the contribution statements drift apart. We therefore request the payroll accounts in full and reconcile them before the first run happens here.
We run the payroll in DATEV LODAS. Which system your previous adviser uses makes no difference to the handover.
Our current adviser does not use DATEV. Will the data still come across?
Yes. Between two DATEV firms the handover runs as a data transfer, and the standard client data transfer form is enough. Where the previous firm uses different software, we take the records over through an export — usually the GDPdU file, which any system that meets the GoBD can produce.
What comes across is the chart of accounts, the brought-forward figures, the open items and the current year's postings. Where the chart of accounts differs — SKR03 against SKR04, for instance — we map it over so that the prior-year comparison survives.
We are in the middle of a tax audit. Can we still change?
You can, but it is the most demanding case. The audit order is addressed to your company, not to your adviser — a change therefore does not interrupt the audit, and you do not have to wait for it to end.
In practice we arrange the handover so that the auditor has one point of contact throughout: we review the state of the audit, the records already produced and the open queries before the authority is transferred.
Where it serves the matter, the previous adviser can see the running audit through while we already take on the day-to-day bookkeeping. That decision is of course yours; we will tell you what speaks for each route.
Who is answerable for returns from the years before the change?
A change alters nothing about what happened before it. For returns your previous adviser prepared, your relationship with them remains the relevant one; towards the Finanzamt you are and remain the taxable person.
If something strikes us during the handover, we tell you and explain what follows from it. Where it emerges that an earlier return was incorrect or incomplete and tax may have been understated, § 153 Abs. 1 AO requires notification and correction. That duty falls on the taxable person and their legal representatives, so the notification is of course made by your management. So that it does not have to be made without a basis, we prepare the correction and see the discussion with the Finanzamt through.
Do the sums first, then change
Show us a single month.
Send us a typical monthly payroll and your last set of accounts. You get a proposal and an assessment of what a change would mean in your case — before you give notice on anything.
- FRADECO GmbH · Bonn
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Simrockstr. 92 · 53619 Rheinbreitbach
+49 2224 123 14 83 - FRADECO SAS · Paris
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50, Rue Chapon · 75003 Paris
+33 1 40 09 13 77