Tax advisers may run extra offices without a designated head from 2027

On 22 September 2026 in Frankfurt, the Satzungsversammlung meeting after the 114th Bundeskammerversammlung adopted amendments to the Berufsordnung der Steuerberater (BOStB) and the Fachberaterordnung (FBO). The amendments adapt both sets of professional rules to the Neuntes Gesetz zur Änderung von Vorschriften im Steuerberatungsrecht sowie im Steuerrecht, adopted by the Bundestag and Bundesrat on 11 and 12 June 2026, whose renumbered provisions on limited assistance in tax matters and wage-tax assistance associations took effect on 1 September 2026.

The only substantive change concerns further consulting offices. Section 34(2), sentences 2 to 6 of the Steuerberatungsgesetz (StBerG) — the requirement that each additional Beratungsstelle have a designated head, with a narrow exception-permit routeGesetze IM Internet — is repealed with effect from 1 January 2027Bstbk. The first sentence of § 34(2) StBerG remains: additional offices may be kept so long as professional duties are not impaired. As a consequence, § 11(3) and (4) BOStB, which fleshed out the exception-permit procedure, are deleted without replacement on the same day, 1 January 2027Bstbk, and the proposal also removes the head-of-a-further-office example from the illustrative list of multiple roles in § 18 BOStB. For firms, running a second or third office no longer needs a named head on site or a permit file once the statutory repeal takes effect.Bstbk

Everything else is editorial alignment. Sections 12, 27 and 29 BOStB update cross-references to the renumbered StBerG: the former § 4 nos. 6, 7, 8 and 11 now live in §§ 4 and 4a to 4c StBerG, the former § 6 no. 4 in § 6(1) no. 1 StBerG, and the former § 86 provision in § 85a StBerG. Section 5(5) BOStB swaps “Gebührenforderungen” for “Vergütungsforderungen”, and § 1 FBO corrects its citation from § 86(4) no. 11 to § 85a(4) no. 11 StBerG following the 2024 transfer of that provision. The amendment proposals state expressly that these are editorial adjustments with no substantive change.

The same BStBK release reports the assembly backdrop: on 22 September 2026 the 114th Bundeskammerversammlung adopted a Geldwäscheprävention resolution rejecting the current AMLA draft delegated acts, and on 17 September 2026 BStBK and DStV issued their joint demand paper calling for a cooperative, faster tax audit regime for small and mid-sized businesses. The operative professional-law changes rest on the Berufsordnung der Steuerberater (BOStB) and Fachberaterordnung (FBO) as amended to track the Steuerberatungsgesetz (StBerG).