In short and in plain language
This article is for tax advisers. It shows how a good website for your firm is built.
Your profession has its own rules for advertising. The article explains them. It also explains what belongs in the legal notice.
The site should say what the firm does and who works there. It also shows how to get in touch.
Separate paths for client enquiries and job applications help. A careers page carries a lot of weight in many firms.
We build websites like this. We agree the texts with you.
Tax advisers in Germany may advertise, but not in the way a shop or a trade business advertises. The Tax Advisory Act only allows advertising insofar as it informs factually, in form and content, about the professional activity and is not aimed at obtaining an engagement in an individual case (Section 57a StBerG). For a firm website this sentence is not an obstacle but a usable blueprint: the site should explain what the firm takes on, who works there, which matters it is suited for and how to get in touch. That is exactly what businesses, self-employed people and private individuals want to know before they contact a firm. This article shows how to build a tax adviser website that opens up new client relationships and attracts applications without leaving the professional rules behind: which wording is factual and which is not, how titles, specialist designations and focus areas appear correctly, which mandatory details belong in the imprint, what the client enquiry has to do with the duty of confidentiality and why the careers page carries as much weight in many firms as the service pages. The article classifies the legal position for work on a website and does not replace guidance from the responsible chamber of tax advisers in an individual case.
Key points at a glance
- Tax advisers may advertise insofar as the advertising informs factually about their professional activity and is not aimed at an engagement in an individual case (Section 57a StBerG). A firm website meets this when it explains rather than touts.
- Copy written by a web agency counts as the firm's own advertising under professional law: causing or tolerating unprofessional advertising by third parties is not permitted (Section 9(1) BOStB). Every page therefore needs sign-off from the firm's management.
- Besides the professional title, only officially conferred additions such as the specialist adviser designations and academic degrees are allowed; referring to former civil-servant status, for instance at the tax office, is not permitted (Section 43(2) and (3) StBerG).
- The imprint additionally names the chamber, the statutory professional title with the state that conferred it and the professional rules (Section 5 DDG), plus details of the professional liability insurance (Section 2 DL-InfoV).
- Whoever looks after the firm's hosting, forms or mailboxes is a service provider within the meaning of Section 62a StBerG: the contract has to be in text form and include an obligation of confidentiality.
- 43.4 percent of sole practices that were looking for staff could not fill any vacancy, and 62 percent of recruiting firms advertised positions on their own website (STAX 2024).
What the law allows in advertising
The core rule sits in Section 57a of the Tax Advisory Act and is short: advertising is only permitted insofar as it informs factually, in form and content, about the professional activity and is not aimed at obtaining an engagement in an individual case (Section 57a StBerG). It contains two conditions. The first concerns subject and tone: the advertising has to inform about the professional activity, and do so factually, in its form as well as its content. A page that describes services, working methods, contacts and availability informs. A page that relies on superlatives, exclamation marks and promises of success touts. The second condition concerns direction: the advertising must not aim to win a specific engagement in a particular individual case. A website addresses everyone who opens it and meets this condition by its very nature. It only becomes delicate where a firm uses the website to approach individual people or businesses about a specific case.
Behind Section 57a lies the general professional duty: tax advisers have to practise their profession independently, on their own responsibility, conscientiously, discreetly and without unprofessional advertising (Section 57(1) StBerG). The professional code of the Federal Chamber of Tax Advisers, whose revised version entered into force on 1 August 2022 (BOStB), makes this more concrete. Unprofessional advertising exists in particular where advertising is anti-competitive (Section 9(1) BOStB). A firm website is therefore measured against competition law as well as professional law, above all against the ban on misleading commercial practices (Section 5 UWG). A statement about the firm that cannot be substantiated is a problem twice over: as misleading advertising and as a breach of professional duties.
For working with an agency, another sentence of the professional code matters: causing or tolerating unprofessional advertising by third parties is not permitted (Section 9(1) BOStB). A firm that leaves copy, images or ads to a web agency does not hand over its responsibility under professional law. The agency makes suggestions, the firm decides and is accountable. This is no argument against outside help, but it is an argument for a clear approval route: every page and every later change passes across the desk of someone who knows the professional rules before it is published. In practice, a short list of the statements allowed on the website, together with evidence for focus areas and additional designations, works well.
Factual does not mean dull
Factual or not permitted: wording compared
Whether a piece of wording holds up usually depends less on the topic than on the kind of statement. Describing services is allowed, exaggerating them is not. The following overview sets typical sentences from firm websites against their classification. It shows basic patterns, not an exhaustive list, and in case of doubt does not replace a query to the chamber of tax advisers, which is responsible for professional supervision and answers questions of interpretation.
| Wording on the website | Classification | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| “We prepare annual accounts and payroll for trade businesses.” | Factual: describes the work and the target group | Section 57a StBerG |
| “Tax adviser, specialist adviser in international tax law” | Permitted: officially conferred and used for the person who holds it | Section 43(2) StBerG, Section 9(5) BOStB |
| “Tax adviser, Landwirtschaftliche Buchstelle” | Permitted: addition to the professional title conferred by the chamber | Section 44 StBerG |
| “Focus area: business succession” | Permitted if knowledge and experience can be demonstrated | Section 9(3) BOStB |
| Training certificate placed directly after name and professional title | Only permitted with a clear spatial separation | Section 9(2) BOStB |
| “Former tax official, now on your side” | Not permitted: refers to former civil-servant status | Section 43(2) StBerG |
| “Your current adviser misses your deductions.” | Not permitted: disparages another tax adviser | Section 19 BOStB |
| Letter to a specific business about its known tax case | Critical: aimed at an engagement in an individual case | Section 57a StBerG |
The last row illustrates the second condition of Section 57a. A website, a guide article or a talk addresses an open audience. A letter to a specific business whose tax problem the firm knows from the newspaper, offering to take on exactly that case, addresses an individual case. For campaigns that start from the website this gives a simple rule: target groups yes, individual cases no. The professional code also names forms of poaching clients expressly as unfair, among them poaching clients with unlawfully obtained address data, offering to work for inappropriately low remuneration and disparaging other tax advisers or their services (Section 19 BOStB). Undercutting prices aimed at other firms or digs at a client's current adviser therefore do not belong on the homepage, however easily they might be written.
Showing titles, specialist designations and focus areas correctly
Professional law becomes especially concrete on the team page. The professional title is “Steuerberater” or “Steuerbevollmächtigter”, women can choose “Steuerberaterin” or “Steuerbevollmächtigte”, and members of the profession have to use the title in professional dealings (Section 43(1) StBerG). Further professional titles are only permitted if they have been officially conferred; other additions and references to former civil-servant status are not permitted in professional dealings (Section 43(2) StBerG). Additions referring to an academic degree, by contrast, are allowed (Section 43(3) StBerG). For the website this means: doctorate and diploma yes, a former career in the tax administration as a selling point no.
There are only a few officially conferred additions. The Specialist Adviser Code knows exactly two specialist designations, specialist adviser in international tax law and specialist adviser in customs and excise duties, and both may only be used together with the professional title (Section 1 FBO). On 1 January 2026, 1,823 members of the profession held the first and 63 the second designation (BStBK-Berufsstatistik 2025). In addition, the chamber of tax advisers can grant the right to use “Landwirtschaftliche Buchstelle”, an agricultural accounting designation, as an addition to the professional title where special expertise has been demonstrated (Section 44 StBerG). Anyone who holds one of these designations writes it on the website exactly as it was conferred and assigns it to the person who holds it.
Everything else is information rather than a title, and the professional code treats it that way. Other designations, for example references to completed training courses, may only be used if there is a clear spatial separation from the combined statement of name and professional title, and they are not permitted insofar as they could be confused with a specialist adviser designation or are otherwise misleading (Section 9(2) BOStB). Anyone using designations to indicate special qualifications must be able to demonstrate corresponding theoretical knowledge and practical experience in the field named (Section 9(3) BOStB). And officially conferred designations have to be used for the individual person (Section 9(5) BOStB): the specialist adviser appears next to her name on the team page, not as a label over the whole firm. How such details fit into a clear site structure helps decide whether visitors find them.
- Name and professional title as one combined first line for each person
- Officially conferred additions such as specialist adviser or Landwirtschaftliche Buchstelle directly next to the name of the person who holds them
- Academic degrees in the form in which they were awarded
- Training courses and certificates in a separate, spatially distinct paragraph
- Focus areas only where knowledge and experience can be evidenced
- Former partners and predecessors in the practice only with a visible note that they have left
Mandatory details in a firm's imprint
The imprint of a tax firm contains more than that of a commercial business. Besides name, address and details for fast electronic contact, the German Digital Services Act requires members of regulated professions to state the chamber they belong to, the statutory professional title and the state in which it was conferred, as well as the name of the professional rules and how they can be accessed (Section 5(1) No. 5 DDG). For a tax firm this means the responsible chamber of tax advisers, the title “Steuerberater” or “Steuerberaterin” with the state that conferred it and, as rules, usually the Tax Advisory Act, its implementing ordinance, the professional code and the fee ordinance for tax advisers, each with a note on where they can be read. Anyone holding a VAT identification number also states it (Section 5(1) No. 6 DDG).
A second source of mandatory details is the German ordinance on information duties for service providers. Among other things, it requires details of any professional liability insurance, in particular the name and address of the insurer and the territorial scope (Section 2(1) No. 11 DL-InfoV). For self-employed tax advisers such insurance is required by law, because they are obliged to insure themselves against the liability risks arising from their professional activity (Section 67(1) StBerG). The ordinance allows several ways of providing this information, including an easily accessible electronic address (Section 2(2) DL-InfoV). On a website, the imprint is the obvious place. How the other mandatory details are structured and kept reachable is covered in our article on legal notice requirements.
Chamber and professional title
The responsible chamber of tax advisers with its address, the statutory professional title and the state in which it was conferred. For partnerships and companies, authorised representatives and register details are added depending on the legal form.
Professional rules
The name of the rules and a note on where they can be accessed, for example a link to the pages of the Federal Chamber of Tax Advisers and to the official online collection of federal law.
Professional liability insurance
Name and address of the insurer and the territorial scope. These details change when the insurer changes and therefore belong in the annual review of the imprint.
The client enquiry as a route of its own
A firm website does not win clients through marketing language but through an enquiry route that matches the visitor's situation. Someone looking for a tax firm usually has a reason: setting up a business, the first employee, an inheritance, a change of adviser or a succession. A good enquiry form asks exactly for that reason, plus the legal form, the approximate size and the preferred way to call back. The firm rarely needs more for a first conversation, and every additional field is a hurdle before the first contact. How to spot and reduce friction in forms is covered in the article on conversion optimisation. What happens after sending matters too: a confirmation that says who will respond and by when replaces many follow-up calls.
Confidentiality begins with the enquiry. It covers everything that has become known in the course of practising the profession (Section 57(1) StBerG), and the unauthorised disclosure of another person's secret entrusted to a tax adviser is a criminal offence (Section 203(1) No. 3 StGB). The form should therefore not ask for documents that are not needed for the first conversation, and it should state clearly that tax assessments, tax numbers and receipts are only sent by a secure route once the engagement has started. The transfer has to be encrypted; the General Data Protection Regulation expressly lists the encryption of personal data among the appropriate measures (Art. 32 GDPR). At the time of collection, enquirers also learn who processes their data, for what purpose and on what legal basis (Art. 13 GDPR). A concise GDPR checklist for websites helps not to miss the remaining points.
The technology behind the form is subject to a provision of its own in professional law. Tax advisers may give service providers access to facts covered by confidentiality insofar as this is necessary for using the service (Section 62a(1) StBerG). The contract with the service provider has to be in text form; in it the provider is bound to confidentiality with instruction on the criminal consequences, may only obtain knowledge to the extent necessary to perform the contract, and it is specified whether the provider may involve further persons (Section 62a(3) StBerG). Whoever hosts the website, stores form submissions or holds maintenance access and could reach enquiries in doing so generally falls under this rule. A data processing agreement is still needed alongside it (Art. 28 GDPR), because the provisions on the protection of personal data remain unaffected (Section 62a(8) StBerG).
The website provider needs a contract in text form
- Reason as a selection: start-up, ongoing bookkeeping, payroll, annual accounts, succession, change of adviser, private tax return
- Legal form and approximate size of the business
- Name, email address and phone number with preferred callback time
- Free text for questions, with a note not to send any tax data yet
- Privacy notice under Art. 13 GDPR linked directly at the form
- Confirmation of receipt with the next step and the period within which the firm will respond
The careers page against the skills shortage
In many firms the website decides on new staff just as much as on new clients. On 1 January 2026 there were 53,932 tax advisory practices in Germany without further branch offices, and 67.1 percent of them were sole practices (BStBK-Berufsstatistik 2025). For small practices every vacancy weighs heavily. The statistical reporting system of the Federal Chamber of Tax Advisers, for which the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach surveyed 5,815 tax advisers in spring 2024 (STAX 2024), shows the situation clearly. Of the sole practices that had looked for new staff in the two years before the survey, 43.4 percent could fill none and a further 33.4 percent only some of their vacancies (STAX 2024). Tax clerks were in particular demand: 32 percent of all sole practices and 75.7 percent of all professional partnerships and companies had vacancies for them (STAX 2024).
The route firms used most often was their own website: 62 percent of firms that wanted to fill positions advertised them there, 59.7 percent on online job boards (STAX 2024). Someone who reads an ad on a job board can form a picture of the firm on its website before applying, and ideally finds more there than the ad itself. The pipeline of trainees is getting tighter: on 1 January 2026, 17,081 training contracts for tax clerks were registered with the chambers of tax advisers, 1.3 percent fewer than a year earlier (BStBK-Berufsstatistik 2025). The professional code provides that tax advisers should take part in training the next generation and in training tax clerks (Section 20 BOStB). A careers page that explains training, retraining and entry routes is therefore not just recruitment advertising but part of that task.
What belongs on a careers page differs little from other sectors: each position on its own subpage rather than as a PDF, an honest insight into tasks, working-time models and further training, and a short application without a mandatory cover letter. Our article careers page instead of job ad covers this in detail. For tax firms one particular point comes on top, which often only becomes apparent during the photo shoot: images from the office must not show files, screens or visitors from which clients can be identified, because confidentiality covers everything that has become known in the course of practising the profession (Section 57(1) StBerG).
Explain the training
What trainees learn, how the training to become a tax clerk is structured and who supervises it in the firm. The page speaks to school leavers and equally to their parents, who often have a say in the choice.
One page per position
Tasks, working-time model, further training and contact person on a subpage of its own with a readable address. Each position can then be linked, shared and found via search engines.
Short application
Name, contact route and CV as an upload are enough for the first step. Applicant data is stored separately from client enquiries and deleted after a defined period.
Becoming visible without leaving the framework
A website that clearly names the location, catchment area and directions answers the question of whether a firm is within reach for visitors from the area, and it can be found in searches with a local reference. How local visibility is built is described on our page about local SEO. Firms with several offices observe a rule of the professional code here: a short name for the firm has to be used consistently across several locations (Section 9(4) BOStB). Location pages therefore carry the same firm name and differ in address, contacts and opening hours, not in their appearance. An office that is not the professional establishment counts as a further advisory office and has to be identified as such (Section 11(1) and (2) BOStB). How such pages are set up cleanly is shown in the article on multiple locations on a website.
With references and client testimonials, confidentiality applies again. As a rule, even the fact that someone is a client of a firm is part of what has become known in the course of practising the profession (Section 57(1) StBerG). Names, logos or quotes from clients therefore only go on the website with their express consent, and invented testimonials are out of the question because they mislead. Content that shows how the firm works carries more weight than praise: guide articles on deadlines and changes in the law, information sheets for founders, a clear description of the first year with the firm. Such content informs factually about the professional activity and fits exactly within the framework of Section 57a StBerG.
Forms of advertising that work well in retail cannot simply be transferred. A prize draw for Advent can be a sensible occasion for a shop. Whether a prize draw informs factually about the professional activity of a tax firm is at least questionable and should be clarified with the chamber of tax advisers beforehand. The same applies to discount campaigns and price comparisons with other firms, which quickly come close to the unfair means listed in Section 19 BOStB.
Inform rather than tout
From draft to sign-off in the firm
A website project for a tax firm sensibly starts not with the design but with an inventory. Which services does the firm offer, for which target groups and with which focus areas, and which of them can be backed up with knowledge and experience? Which advisers, specialist advisers and staff should appear on the team page, and have all of them agreed to their photo being published? Which service providers currently have access to forms and mailboxes, and are there contracts in text form for this? How to bundle content, access credentials and deadlines for such a project is described in the article on preparing a website project.
Timing plays a part as well. For tax returns prepared by a firm, the standard deadline ends on the last day of February of the second calendar year following the tax period (Section 149(3) AO). Anyone who does not want the review rounds for copy and team page to fall in the weeks before such deadlines starts in autumn and plans approvals so that they are completed before the turn of the year. An existing website is not simply switched off but replaced through a website relaunch with redirects, so that search engines and bookmarks find the new addresses.
- Gather services, target groups and focus areas that can be evidenced
- Build the team page with professional titles, conferred additions and consent for photos
- Write the copy and have it approved by the firm's management under professional law
- Set up the imprint completely with chamber, professional rules and liability insurance
- Set up client enquiry and application as separate forms with encrypted transfer
- Conclude and file service contracts under Section 62a StBerG and data processing agreements
After launch the site remains a maintenance task. When someone leaves the firm, a specialist designation is added or the liability insurer changes, the team page and the imprint change too. Regular website care helps keep such changes from being left undone, and an annual review date in the firm for mandatory details and forms catches what everyday work overlooked. Building the site to be accessible, with sufficient contrast, operable forms and a clear structure, also makes it usable for clients with visual or motor impairments. What such a site involves in detail is shown in our overview of websites for tax advisers.
Sources and legal basis
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