Doing your own accounts, German version

[darrenb]

In Germany it is supposed to be braindead simple to do your own accounts, because you don't have all the burden of a Ltd to carry around. (I always wondered why they made me fill out share allocations and the like. I'm not BT or Facebook.) You're just a simple freelancer here.

Still, even so, most people here seem to prefer to use accountants (Steuerberater). And they seem to charge just as heavily as British Ltd-style accountants, around 2% of your total income over the year.

So I'd like to get some opinions from the expat crowd here. For example is there anybody who does NOT use an accountant, but prefers to DIY with the Elster/Taxman software? Is it really that much of a risk to DIY?

The argument sometimes goes that accountants are a hedge against incompetent tax officials (not to mention your own cluelessness). The counter-argument is that sometimes accountants are incompetent too, and often you won't know it till you're deep in penalties.

[darmstadt]

When I was permie I used to do it myself as it was quite easy. I would fill out the tax form myself and then go along to the Finanzamt and ask them lots of questions about the other sections. They're not allowed to help you fill it out but by law have to give you the answers to all your questions, used to get money back that way.

As a contractor I use a Steuerberater as there is just too much information and the Finanzamt are always changing something, i.e. last year they changed how you record mileage and they've changed it again. I posted a list of recommended (as by German contractors) accountants on here sometime ago.