TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS
Thank you for taking the time to read our Terms and Conditions of Business (“Terms and Conditions”). You – hereinafter also referred to as “user” or “customer”– will find your rights and obligations for using our Einkommensteuerhilfe website below.
1. Scope
2. Contractual partner
3. Scope of services
4. Conclusion of contract
5. Payment processing and payment services
6. Intellectual property
7. Data protection
8. Customer obligations
9. Liability and warranty
10. Right of withdrawal
11. Term and termination of terms
12. Special rights of Einkommensteuerhilfe
13. User data and indemnification from third-party claims
14. Availability
15. Reviews/Comments
16. Final provisions
17. Dispute resolution
Terms and Conditions 1) Scope a) These Terms and Conditions apply to all services provided by Einkommensteuerhilfe to consumers. A consumer is any natural person who concludes a legal transaction for a purpose that cannot predominantly be attributed to either their commercial or independent professional activity. b) In order to register with Einkommensteuerhilfe, we generally require that you, if you are a consumer, are a natural person over the age of 18 with unlimited legal capacity. It is also mandatory to provide your contact and address details to register with Einkommensteuerhilfe. You must also provide the personal data and addresses requested by Einkommensteuerhilfe completely and correctly (no PO box or similar) and ensure their accuracy.
c) Registration will only take place if you previously bindingly accept the inclusion of these Terms and Conditions and the data protection declaration (Privacy Policy). There is no entitlement to registration. When you register, a contractual usage relationship arises between you and Einkommensteuerhilfe. Your user account is valid until your termination or your death as proven by third parties.
d) To register, please select your email address and a password. You can change the access password at any time and it must always be kept secret. Once you have registered, you will receive a member account that contains all relevant data for using the platform.
e) Registration of a member is only permitted once. Multiple registrations under different names are expressly not permitted. Member accounts are not transferable to other people. They may also not be used by other people, e.g. by passing on the password.
f) Violations of the above regulations entitle Einkommensteuerhilfe to terminate the contractual relationship without notice and to immediately delete the user account from the platform.
g) In order to use our member area on our online platform Einkommensteuerhilfe, we always require that you have successfully registered as a user with us.
h) As a user of the member area, you have the opportunity to arrange a personal appointment with one of our consultants using the appointment form and to discuss your possible income tax matter (within the scope defined in j)) by email, video chat or telephone call, providing all the data or by describing the respective individual case to transmit to us. You must submit this data completely and correctly, otherwise we will not be able to process it and your right to advice from Einkommensteuerhilfe will expire.
i) There is no legal right to a tax return. It can always happen that a case is too complex or that Einkommensteuerhilfe does not have specialist expertise and therefore the assessment (and finally the preparation of the tax return) cannot be carried out. In this case, we will inform you of this and advise you to consult a qualified tax advisor.j) Einkommensteuerhilfe generally only handles the following cases:
Employees with income exclusively from employment or pensioners with exclusively pension income and both with tax residency in Germany.
All other cases require prior consultation (before completing a membership) with Einkommensteuerhilfe. This also includes cases in which, in addition to the above, is any further income.
Income from commercial companies, self-employment and rental and leasing are generally excluded.
Income from capital gains or “other income” is permitted by prior arrangement, but may be charged a separate fee depending on the complexity of the case. Einkommensteuerhilfe will determine the fee on a case-by-case basis.
2) Contractual partner a) The contract is concluded with Einkommensteuerhilfe / Rieger Steuerberatung, owner: Ms. Constanze Rieger, Im Trutz Frankfurt 23, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
3) Scope of services a) The services of Einkommensteuerhilfe include the provision of documents and videos as well as personal advice via email, telephone or video chat, which enable you to prepare, draft and submit a tax return (Membership 1). If you complete membership 2, Einkommensteuerhilfe will prepare the tax return and send it to your tax office for you. b) The services provided by Einkommensteuerhilfe generally only refer to cases with German unlimited tax liability with income from employment (receiver of wages) or pension income as described in paragraph 1 j) . All other cases explicitly require prior agreement with Einkommensteuerhilfe. This means that the customer must contact Einkommensteuerhilfe before completing the membership. If he does not do this and takes out a membership even though the requirements according to sentence 1 (and paragraph 1 j)) are not met, the customer cannot request a refund of his membership fee. However, the customer can cancel the contract according to point 10) (Right of withrawal) within 14 days. After the cancellation period has expired, a refund of paid contributions is excluded.
c) Regardless of the provisions in these terms and conditions, Einkommensteuerhilfe's services include or constitute services subject to authorization under the Tax Advisory Act - StBerG (Steuerberatungsgesetz) .
d) The information provided by us on our website is for general informational purposes only. All information is provided in good faith, however we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness of any information on the website.
4) Conclusion of contract a) The presentation of the services on the Einkommesnteuerhilfe website does not constitute a legally binding offer, but rather only an invitation to order membership. b) By clicking the [Mitglied werden] or [Mitgliedschaft] you will first be asked to create a customer account. At the same time, you hereby place a binding order for membership and thus the services offered on the membership site. Your contract is concluded when we accept your order by sending an order confirmation via email immediately after receiving your order.
c) The customer owes Einkommensteuerhilfe a fee including statutory sales tax. The membership fee is 69.00 euros per year for membership 1 and 89.00 euros per year for membership 2.
d) The fee, the type of calculation and the applicable payment conditions, such as due date and payment modalities, will be displayed to the customer before the contract is concluded.
e) Einkommensteuerhilfe offers its customers access to a personal advisory service. This service is included in the fee mentioned under c).
f) The customer gains access to this service by booking a consultation appointment on the members' page, which is only accessible to members. A customer account and membership are required for this.
g) Personal advice takes place via email, telephone or video chat.
5) Payment processing and payment services a) We provide you with the use of payment services and options for simple and uncomplicated payment of services ordered for a fee via the Einkommensteuerhilfe platform. You can start this use by clicking on the corresponding button from the payment service provider as part of the binding ordering process. This will then take you to the relevant page of the respective payment service provider. b) Payment processing for a) is currently carried out via the payment service provider “Stripe”.
c) We only provide access to the website of the respective payment service provider, but do not become a contractual party as part of the payment process.
d) All payment claims arising from membership are due after completion of the purchase process and before using the member area.
e) We reserve the right to exclude certain payment options individually or to add them later.
f) In order to use payment services, it may be necessary for you to enter into a contractual relationship with the relevant payment service provider. You will receive the relevant information at the beginning of the payment process.
g) Stripe collects, processes and possibly stores data from Einkommensteuerhilfe customers, even without them having their own Stripe account. Passing on the data to third parties is also not excluded. You can find Stripe's data protection policy here: https://stripe.com/de/privacy (external link)
6) Intellectual property a) All content, including logos, images, videos, graphics and texts, which are related to Einkommensteuerhilfe's services and are published (unless indicated by other source information), are in particular protected as trademarks or copyright and are the exclusive property of Einkommensteuerhilfe too. The customer may not imitate, modify, use, reproduce, distribute, change or otherwise exploit this content, whether for private or commercial purposes, without the prior written consent of Einkommensteuerhilfe. The legal provisions remain unaffected. b) Einkommensteuerhilfe does not claim ownership of the content provided by the customer to Einkommensteuerhilfe (the “user content”). Einkommensteuerhilfe reserves the right to remove or disable access to any user content for any reason that, in Einkommensteuerhilfe's discretion, violates the terms of this agreement or threatens the integrity or security of the website or services.
7) Data protection a) We collect your personal data for the purpose of executing the contract and to fulfill our contractual and pre-contractual obligations. The data collection and data processing is necessary for the execution of the contract and is based on Article 6 Paragraph 1 b) General Data Protection Regulation - DSGVO (Datenschutzgrundverordnung). b) In principle, no further data transfer to third parties takes place - unless there is a legal deadline or is necessary for the execution of the contract. Please note that these third-party service providers are responsible for data processing and have their own contractual relationship with you.
c) The data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer required for the purpose of their processing and unless there is a statutory retention requirement to the contrary. As long as there is a contractual usage relationship between you and us, we will also retain the data you have stored on our platform or provided otherwise (e.g. via email, Dropbox or Zoom). However, it may also be necessary for data to continue to be stored after our usage agreement has been terminated. Invoice data (billing documents) must be retained for 10 years in accordance with Section 147 of the AO (Abgabenordnung).
d) Free information about all of your personal data is possible. You also have the right to data transfer, deletion, correction, restriction or blocking of personal data.
e) You can send relevant questions and applications directly to: Einkommensteuerhilfe, for the attention of Ms. Constanze Rieger via email: customer-service@einkommensteuerhilfe.com
f) You also have the right, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe that Einkommensteuerhilfe's data processing processes violate data protection regulations.
8) Customer obligations a) The customer's essential contractual obligation is that all information that the customer provides to Einkommensteuerhilfe is true, accurate, current and complete and that the customer immediately transmits all necessary files, data and additional information upon request. b) The customer is obliged to inform Einkommensteuerhilfe immediately of any changes or updates to his name, address, telephone number and email address.
c) The customer is obliged to keep his password confidential and to protect it from unauthorized use by third parties. The customer is liable for misuse if he is responsible for the misuse.
d) The customer is obliged to check entries made automatically (e.g. with regard to incorrect text recognition) and correct them accordingly.
e) In addition, the customer's further obligations to cooperate in these conditions apply.
9) Liability and warranty a) Einkommensteuerhilfe is liable without limitation in the event of intent or gross negligence, for injury to life, limb or health, in accordance with the provisions of the Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz) and to the extent of any guarantee provided by Einkommensteuerhilfe. b) In the event of material or financial damage caused by Einkommensteuerhilfe through slight negligence, Einkommensteuerhilfe is only liable for damages resulting from the violation of essential contractual obligations, but limited to the damage that was foreseeable at the time the contract was concluded and was typical for the contract. Essential contractual obligations are those whose fulfillment enables the proper execution of the contract itself and on which the customer can regularly rely. The foreseeable and contract-typical damage amounts to a maximum of the contract value of one year. This is the annual membership fee.
c) If Einkommensteuerhilfe provides services without remuneration, Einkommensteuerhilfe is only liable in accordance with section a); section b) is not applicable.
d) Otherwise, liability of Einkommensteuerhilfe is excluded.
e) The above liability limitations also apply to the personal liability of Einkommensteuerhilfe's employees, representatives, bodies and vicarious agents.
f) The customer agrees to indemnify Einkommensteuerhilfe and its representatives from all losses, liabilities, claims and damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with any culpable breach of these terms or any legal obligation by the customer in connection therewith or your culpable violation of the rights of third parties. Einkommensteuerhilfe will inform you immediately in writing in the event of such a claim.
10) Right of withdrawal a) If you are a consumer (a natural person who places the order for a purpose that cannot be attributed to your commercial or independent professional activity), you have a right of withdrawal in accordance with the statutory provisions. b) Right of withdrawal: You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving reasons. The cancellation period begins on the day the contract is concluded. In order to exercise your right of withdrawal, you must inform us of your decision to withdraw from this contract by means of a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or email). You can use the attached sample cancellation form, although this is not mandatory. In order to meet the cancellation period, it is sufficient that you send the notification of your exercise of the right of cancellation before the cancellation period expires.
c) Declaration of withdrawal The declaration of revocation must be sent to: Einkommensteuerhilfe, for the attention of Ms. Constanze Rieger, email: customer-service@einkommensteuerhilfe.com d) Consequences of revocation: If you revoke this contract, we must repay all payments that we have received from you immediately and at the latest within 14 days from the day on which we received notification of your revocation of this contract. For this repayment we will use the same payment method that you used for the original transaction, unless something different was expressly agreed with you. e) If you have requested that the service should begin during the cancellation period, you must pay us an appropriate amount that corresponds to the proportion of the service already rendered up to the time at which you informed us of your exercise of the right of cancellation compared to the total scope of services provided for in the contract. The contractually agreed service includes the preparation of an annual income tax return.
f) If the tax return has already been completely prepared by Einkommensteuerhilfe by the time you exercised your right of withdrawal (regardless of the transmission of the tax return to you), the full annual fee is due. There will be no refund of an annual fee that has already been paid.
g) Sample cancellation form If you want to revoke the contract, please fill out this form and send it back to: Einkommensteuerhilfe, for the attention of Ms. Constanze Rieger, email: customer-service@einkommensteuerhilfe.com · I/we (*) hereby revoke the contract concluded by me/us (*) for the provision of the following service (*)· Ordered on (*) / received on (*)· Name of the customer (s)· Address of the customer(s)· Signature of the customer(s) (only for paper notifications)· Date (*) Delete what is not applicable.
11) Term and termination of terms a) The contractual usage relationship between Einkommensteuerhilfe and you is concluded for an indefinite period of time and can be terminated by both parties subject to a notice period. The termination must be sent to the other party in writing or text form by email in order to be effective. b) The normal notice period is 1 month to the end of the membership year.
c) The membership year begins on the day of the effective conclusion of the membership contract and ends at the end of the day of the 12th month (last month) whose number corresponds to the day in which the event falls. For example, if the membership year begins on July 15, year 01, it ends the following year on July 15, year 02, midnight 12 pm. Termination in the above example must therefore be made by June 15, year 02, midnight 12 pm.
d) Upon termination of the membership contract, your access to the members area ends.
e) Upon termination of the membership contract, Einkommensteuerhilfe is entitled and obliged to irrevocably delete your member account. Personal data and other information that was transmitted between you and Einkommensteuerhilfe during a tax assessment will be deleted (with the exception of the data in accordance with point 7) c)).
f) Einkommensteuerhilfe reserves the right to terminate the usage relationship with immediate effect and block the user account if there is an important reason, in particular in the event of violations of these Terms and Conditions and other contractual obligations, or in the event of disruptions, misuse or damage to the reputation of this platform.
12) Special rights of Einkommensteuerhilfe a) We are entitled to exclude and/or delete requests for processing, in particular if one of the following reasons applies:incorrect and/or missing address and contact details,missing email confirmation within 48 hours,incomplete or incomprehensible requests,you use language and expressions that violate applicable law, are offensive, untrue, glorify violence, are harmful to minors, are unobjective, are racist, discriminatory, sexist, or similar,you are not available,Einkommensteuerhilfe does not have any tax legal expertise in the relevant tax subject area,
the declaration of completeness was not submitted or not signed,the case submitted is disproportionately complex
b) For the purposes of executing the contract, you grant us the right to reproduce the data that you transmit to us, to the extent that this is necessary to provide the services owed under this contract. We are also entitled to store the data in an outage system or separate outage data center. In order to eliminate disruptions, we are also entitled to make changes to the structure of the data or the data format. c) We do not receive any further rights of use or exploitation and in particular will not publish the content you submit or make it accessible to third parties unless this is necessary for the purpose of the contract.
d) We are entitled to temporarily or permanently block use if there are concrete indications that you are violating the contractual conditions or applicable law. When deciding on blocking, the legitimate interests of the user are appropriately taken into account.
e) We are entitled to change or delete functions of www.einkommensteuerhilfe.com or add new functions at any time without giving reasons or to only enable the use of functions under certain conditions.
f) Einkommensteuerhilfe uses the provider “Dropbox” for the secure transmission of documents. Einkommensteuerhilfe posts documents on the platform Dropbox that the customer can view and download, even without having their own Dropbox account. At the same time, the customer can upload documents upon request from Einkommensteuerhilfe, which will then be transmitted to Einkommensteuerhilfe. After documents have been posted by Einkommensteuerhilfe for the customer, they will receive a message with a link and a password with which the documents can be viewed. The customer hereby expressly agrees to view the new documents within 48 hours. If the customer retrieves the information later and misses deadlines or appointments because of this, this will not be at the expense of Einkommensteuerhilfe. The password provided may only be used by the customer and may not be passed on. Dropbox may collect, process and store data from Einkommensteuerhilfe customers, even without them having their own Dropbox account. Passing on the data to third parties is also not excluded. Dropbox's privacy policy can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/privacy (external link) g) Einkommensteuerhilfe uses the provider “Zoom” for communication with customers.Zoom collects, processes and stores data from Einkommensteuerhilfe customers who participate in a Zoom communication. Passing on the data to third parties is also not excluded. Zoom's data protection policy can be found here: https://www.zoom.com/en/trust/privacy (external link) h) Einkommensteuerhilfe uses the web host “Squarespace” to offer its services. Squarespace may collect, process and store data from Einkommensteuerhilfe customers. Passing on the data to third parties is also not excluded. Squarespace's privacy policy can be found here: https://www.squarespace.com/privacy (external link)
13) User data and exemption from third-party claims a) You are responsible for the content that you transmit to us (e.g. via Dropbox, Zoom or email). b) You undertake to us that you will not transmit/post any content or data that is punishable or otherwise illegal, absolutely or in relation to individual third parties, and that you will not use any programs containing viruses or other malware in connection with the software. In particular, you agree not to use the software to offer unlawful services or goods.
c) You are obliged to indemnify us against all liability and costs in this context, including possible and actual costs of legal proceedings, if claims are brought against us by third parties as a result of your actions or omissions. We will inform you of the claim and, to the extent legally possible, give you the opportunity to defend the asserted claim. At the same time, you are obliged to immediately provide us with all the information available to you about the matter that is the subject of the claim.
d) Any further claims for damages from Einkommensteuerhilfe remain unaffected.
14) Availability a) The availability of the website depends on the different technical equipment of the users. In order to be able to use the website to its full extent and access www.einkommensteuerhilfe.com, suitable technical aids (PC, tablet, cell phone and, crucially, internet access) are required. b) For technical reasons, uninterrupted availability of the digital content cannot be guaranteed. Availability can be affected, for example, by regularly required maintenance and safety work, but also by unforeseen events that are beyond our control. Planned work that leads to an impairment of availability will be carried out by the host “Squarespace”. The display quality of the digital content may also vary from device to device and depend on the speed of the user's Internet connection and other factors. In this respect, we cannot be held liable for deviations.
c) You are obliged to report any functional failures, malfunctions or impairments of the software to the provider immediately and as precisely as possible. If you fail to cooperate, you will not be able to assert any warranty rights against us (Paragraph 536 c Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch - BGB). d) If damages result from the loss of data on your part, we are not liable for this if the damages could have been avoided if you had regularly and completely backed up all relevant data. You are responsible for carrying out or having a regular and complete data backup carried out yourself or by a third party.
15) Reviews/comments on www.einkommensteuerhilfe.com and social media platforms of Einkommensteuerhilfe a) You can rate us or comment on blog entries at any time on a voluntary basis. b) The rating system should help to assess the quality and reliability. Every rating and every comment is exclusively a subjective evaluation of the user. In principle, we do not check the truth of the rating/comment.
c) The ratings and comments must be submitted objectively and truthfully. You also undertake to handle the published reviews and comments carefully and to refrain from posting reviews and comments that are offensive, offensive or hurtful.
d) We reserve the right to delete reviews and comments if they are untrue, offensive or defamatory.
e) We are fundamentally free in our decision to publish reviews and comments. You have no right to have your rating or comment published.
16) Final provisions a) Einkommensteuerhilfe may change these Terms and Conditions from time to time. The changed regulations then apply to every newly concluded contract between Einkommensteuerhilfe and the customer. b) If Einkommensteuerhilfe wants to change some or all of the regulations for an ongoing contract with effect for the future, the following applies: 1. Subject to Section 16 b) No. 2. and 3., in the event of a not only insignificant change to these regulations that not only insignificantly affects the customer's rights under these conditions, Einkommensteuerhilfe will inform the customer of the planned changes.If the customer does not object to these changes within a period of 6 weeks or continues to access and use the services after the deadline has expired, this constitutes the customer's consent to be bound by the regulations in the changed version. Einkommensteuerhilfe will inform the customer in the notification about the right of termination, the deadline and the consequences of remaining silent.
2. Section 16) b) No. 1. does not apply to changes to the subject matter of the contract or to a change in essential contractual obligations that would lead to a change in the overall structure of the contract. In this case, Einkommensteuerhilfe can offer the customer to continue the contract with the then changed regulations. 3. Einkommensteuerhilfe also reserves the right to adapt or change these regulations with effect for the future, provided that:(i) the changes or adjustments are solely beneficial to the customers, or(ii) the changes or adjustments are necessary to comply with applicable law, especially if the applicable law changes, or to comply with a court judgment or administrative decision;(iii) the changes or adjustments do not have a significant impact on the functions of the services or are of a purely technical or organizational nature, or(iv) Einkommensteuerhilfe introduces new services or services that require a description in the regulations, unless this would be detrimental to the current contractual relationship; then Section 16) No. 2 applies.
c) In the event of deviations and/or contradictions, the provisions of the electronic offer take precedence over those of the Terms and Conditions. A written provision expressly agreed differently by the contracting parties remains reserved, which, however, only becomes valid if it expressly refers to the provision to be changed. d) This agreement is subject to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany with the exception of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) of April 11, 1980 in its currently valid version) and international law (in particular the German conflict law)
e) Offsetting against the customer's counterclaims is only permitted if these counterclaims are undisputed or have been legally established.
f) If individual clauses of these Terms and Conditions are or become ineffective in whole or in part, the rest of these Terms and Conditions remain in effect. In the event of such ineffectiveness, the ineffective regulation will be replaced by the statutory provision.
17) Out-of-court dispute resolution a) The European Commission provides an online dispute resolution platform, available at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr (external link). Participation in such online dispute resolution is voluntary and Einkommensteuerhilfe does not take part in this dispute resolution process. b) In the event of a legal dispute between Einkommensteuerhilfe and a customer, Einkommensteuerhilfe will inform the customer by email about a body responsible for dispute resolution, including its address and website, and make a statement about its willingness to participate in such a dispute resolution process.