Common questions
With emphasis on the questions that matter in Germany: legal positioning, GoBD, retention periods, EU hosting.
Is Finanz Gym a tax advisor? (§3 StBerG)
No. §3 StBerG (German Tax Advisory Act) regulates who is allowed to commercially provide assistance in tax matters — in Germany that's Steuerberater, attorneys, and sworn auditors. Finanz Gym is none of those. We explain, translate, organise, remind, and prepare — but we don't advise. If you make a decision with tax consequences, your tax advisor is responsible, not us.
Do you provide legal advice? (§5 RDG)
No. §5 RDG (German Legal Services Act) only allows legal services as a secondary activity within another service. We don't provide either primary or secondary legal services. If a letter requires legal interpretation, we refer you to a lawyer — not to our AI.
Are receipts archived GoBD-compliant?
Yes. GoBD (German rules for proper bookkeeping and archiving) requires immutable timestamps, complete audit trail, traceability of receipt journeys, and tamper-evident storage. All incoming receipts are filed with signed hash, ingestion timestamp, and complete processing log. On request, we deliver the audit trail per receipt to the auditor.
How long is my data retained? (§147 AO)
§147 AO (German Tax Code) prescribes 10 years for accounting records and 8 years for received and sent commercial correspondence. We keep all data available for the statutory period by default — even if you cancel the subscription in between (against a small storage fee). Healthcare patient records have additional rules (§57 BMV-Ä, §10 MBO-Ä) which we factor into the healthcare template.
Where does my data live? (GDPR & Azure EU)
Microsoft Azure Germany West Central (Frankfurt am Main). Azure OpenAI in the EU region. Data does not leave the EU. We have a DPA as standard, documented TOMs, external data protection officer engaged. ISO 27001 is on the roadmap; BSI-Grundschutz alignment too.
In which format can I export data?
DATEV format (CSV export in DATEV's standard format) for bookkeeping data, PDF for the receipts themselves, JSON for master data and configuration. Export is available on every tier — even Free, even after contract end. Lock-in contradicts how we want to do business.
Which AI providers do you use?
Azure OpenAI (EU region) as primary provider. Anthropic Claude (EU region) for specific use cases. Both have signed DPAs and do not use API data for training. Personal fields (names, tax IDs, account numbers) are anonymised before LLM calls wherever functionally possible.
Can my tax advisor use the hub for free?
Yes, included in the Business tier. Your tax advisor gets a read-only login on your client data — they see receipts, cashflow, reserves, and open questions. No surcharge, no separate licences. On the Pro tier you can send DATEV exports manually — the hub is a Business feature.
Is there a free trial?
Free is permanently free — not a trial, but its own tier. Pro and Business: 14-day free trial without payment details. Money-back guarantee in the first 30 days for Pro & Business. Consulting Add-on has individual arrangements.
What happens to my data if I cancel?
You receive a complete export of all receipts and booking entries in open formats within 30 days of contract end — at no cost. After that: retention per §147 AO (10 years for accounting records) against a small archive fee, or GDPR-compliant deletion on request (where no statutory retention obligation conflicts).
What's the minimum contract term?
Pro & Business: 3 months minimum, then month-to-month cancellable. Annual billing: 12 months minimum against a 2-month discount. Free & Consulting Add-on: no minimum term.
Who trains the AI on our data?
No one. We don't train models on customer data — neither for other customers nor for ourselves. AI responses come from publicly available sources (BMF circulars, statute texts, BFH judgements) and your concrete inputs in a sandboxed conversation. No training pipeline on your receipts.
What happens during a tax audit?
Audit readiness is a default feature on the Business tier. We show per area what's complete and what's missing — all year round. In the event of an audit you export an audit package with GoBD audit trails, receipts, and booking entries. The audit itself is led by your tax advisor (not us — see §3 StBerG above).
Question not listed?
Ask us directly in the 30-minute demo conversation.