Steuerberater and Wirtschaftsprüfer: can you accept a reward for an introduction?

The short answer: first ask whether any reward is allowed

For German tax advisers and auditors the first question is not how to disclose a referral reward but whether professional law lets you accept one at all. The Steuerberatungsgesetz (StBerG) and the Wirtschaftsprüferordnung (WPO), together with the professional by-laws for each profession, deal with fees and with advantages connected to the referral of engagements (Vermittlung von Aufträgen).

Those provisions are framed around referring engagements. Whether they reach an introduction of a client company to a data-licensing business such as SourceX, and whether other professional duties stand in the way, is a question for your Steuerberaterkammer or the Wirtschaftsprüferkammer (WPK). This page does not paraphrase the statutory text; read the current version and your chamber's guidance.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting.

Which rules to read

Work through four areas, in this order:

1. Fees and advantages for referrals: the current wording in the StBerG or WPO, and your by-laws, on giving or receiving a share of fees or other advantages for the Vermittlung von Aufträgen, including payments from third parties.
2. Compatible and incompatible activities: professional law separates activities compatible with the profession from commercial activity (gewerbliche Tätigkeit). Ask whether acting as a paid referral partner would count as commercial activity and, if so, whether your chamber could permit it.
3. Confidentiality (Verschwiegenheit): naming a client to a third party needs the client's release from your duty of confidentiality.
4. Independence and objectivity: a reward tied to a client's decision can colour advice; for auditors, independence rules for audit clients add a further layer.

What Tippgeber means here

A Tippgeber passes on a contact and plays no further part in the business that follows. A SourceX partner does something similar: it makes the introduction, gives basic fit information and steps back while the company deals with SourceX directly. The label does not settle the professional-law question, so put the full facts to your chamber rather than relying on how the role is described.

How it applies in common German practice situations

Data protection sits with the company, not with you

Partners never handle records, but the topic will come up when you raise the idea with a client. If the US subsidiary's records include personal data of people in the EU, such as emails with colleagues at the German parent, GDPR questions can arise even though the seller is a US company: the General Data Protection Regulation can apply to organizations outside the EU that offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, people in the EU. De-identification and redaction requirements are agreed between the company and SourceX before any work begins, and nothing is delivered without an executed agreement and the company's authorization.

If a reward is permitted: disclosure and consent

• Get your chamber's or your firm's answer in writing before registering
• Obtain the client's written release from confidentiality (Entbindung von der Verschwiegenheitspflicht) before naming it
• Disclose in writing who pays the reward (SourceX), what it is based on and when it becomes payable
• Confirm that the reward comes from SourceX's fee and does not reduce what the company receives
• Keep your tax or audit advice separate from the introduction and say so to the client
• File the chamber's answer, the disclosure and the release in the Handakte

Questions to put to your Steuerberaterkammer or the WPK

• Is a payment from a non-professional business for introducing a client covered by the provisions on referral advantages?
• Would acting as a paid referral partner be a gewerbliche Tätigkeit, and is an exception available?
• Does the answer change if the reward is paid to the Gesellschaft rather than to me?
• Does it change if the company I introduce is not a client?
• For auditors: does any audit or other assurance relationship in the group rule it out?

If the answer is no

You can still help the client. Make the introduction without registering as a partner for that company, or point the US CEO to apply directly at sourcex.si/apply. Transaction-focused advisers with different professional rules can compare the page for M&A advisors.

If the answer is yes: rewards and paperwork

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. Rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, and no reward is guaranteed. Read the program terms and the overview of what a referral fee agreement covers before you sign.

A practice that registers as a company documents its foreign status with Form W-8BEN-E, which goes to the payer, not to the IRS; the W-8BEN-E guide for advisory firms walks through it. German income tax and VAT treatment of the reward is a question for the adviser who handles your own practice's tax.

Next step

Once your Kammer has confirmed that a reward is permissible in your situation, register as a partner. Firms with clients in several countries can start from the playbook for international accounting firms, and the IESBA Code overview on referral fees shows how other jurisdictions approach the same question.