Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 22, 2026

1. Controller

Oscar Rojas
Alt-Mariendorf 50
12107 Berlin, Germany
Email: contact@klarbooks.de

2. What we collect and why

When you submit our request form, we process the data you provide: your name, email address, phone number, city, the type of client you are (for example freelancer or company), the services and tax years you need help with, how urgent it is and any dates you give us, your optional description, and any document you choose to upload. We use this data to understand your request and connect you with a suitable English-speaking German tax advisor (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR — steps prior to entering into a contract, taken at your request).

With your request we also store how you reached our form: the page you submitted it from, the name of the website that linked there (for example a search engine, but never the full address you came from), and any campaign label in our own link. This uses no cookies. After you confirm your email we may also ask how you found us; answering is optional, and we store your answer with your request. The same applies to tax advisors who apply through our page for tax advisors. We use this only in aggregate, to see which channels bring people to us (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interest in understanding and improving how people find the service).

Your description and uploaded documents may reveal sensitive information — for example your religious affiliation through church tax, or details about your health. We process such details only because you choose to share them with us for the purpose of finding you a tax advisor (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR — explicit consent expressed by submitting them). Share only what you're comfortable with; a rough idea of your situation is enough.

3. Email verification

After you submit the form, we email you a 6-digit verification code, which you enter on the page where you submitted. We only begin processing your request once your email address is confirmed this way. This protects you from someone submitting a request in your name, and us from processing data of people who never asked (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR — legitimate interest in verified requests).

4. Who we share it with

We share your request — including your description and any uploaded document — with the independent tax advisor(s) we pass it to, so they can assess and take on your request. We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone else except our technical service providers (hosting by Hetzner in Germany; email delivery and our mailbox, which receives replies to our emails, by mailbox.org in Germany) bound by data processing agreements (Art. 28 GDPR). No AI system assesses or summarises your request.

4a. Your case file

Once a tax advisor takes your request, you can use a case file with them on Klarbooks (Terms, section 4a). Using it is optional. For what you and your tax advisor put into it — notes and documents — your tax advisor is the controller and Klarbooks processes it on their behalf as their service provider (Art. 28 GDPR, § 62a StBerG), only as far as needed to run the case file. We open it only after you agree on your case page, and we record when you agreed and to which version of the terms. The fact and date of contact attempts and status changes on your request remain our own records (Art. 6(1)(b) and 6(1)(f) GDPR).

When something is added, we email the other side that there is something new, without its content. If your tax advisor hands your request back and another tax advisor takes it, the new tax advisor does not see what was written while the previous one held it, and we ask for your agreement again. No AI processes the content of your case file.

5. Hosting and log files

Our website, application database and uploaded documents are hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany, within the European Union. Besides its data processing agreement, Hetzner is bound to professional secrecy under § 203 StGB by a separate agreement. We back them up daily; no backup is kept for longer than 30 days, so data we delete is gone from the backups within 30 days.

Our web server processes technical data (IP address, timestamps, requested pages, browser information) in server logs to provide the site securely and detect abuse (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Log files are retained for a maximum of 30 days unless needed as evidence of an attack.

6. Cookies and analytics

We use only functional cookies that the site needs to work, such as protecting forms against misuse and keeping you signed in to your case page. We use no advertising or tracking cookies, so no consent banner is required.

For aggregate visitor statistics we use Plausible Analytics (data policy), a privacy-friendly, EU-based service that uses no cookies and stores no personal data — we see counts like page views and referrers, never individuals (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Analytics is not loaded on any page that handles your case data.

6a. Marketing emails (only if you ask)

If you opt in, we email you occasional general tips on taxes and running a business in Germany, and offers from Klarbooks. Klarbooks has no partners and sends no partner offers. You can unsubscribe at any time.

7. How long we keep your data

If you never confirm your email address, your request is deleted after 30 days. Confirmed requests, including the case file and its documents, are kept while your matching is active and deleted 12 months after your request is closed, unless statutory retention duties (§ 147 AO, § 257 HGB) require longer storage of individual records. A request closes when you or your tax advisor close it, automatically 30 days after its matching window if no tax advisor took it, or six months after the last activity on it. You can request earlier deletion at any time.

8. Your rights

You have the right to access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20), and to object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21). Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time with effect for the future. To exercise any right, email contact@klarbooks.de. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — for Berlin: Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit.

9. Tax advisors on Klarbooks

If you apply to or take part in Klarbooks as a tax advisor, we process:

• Your application and profile: name, email, phone, firm, city, your chamber of tax advisors (Steuerberaterkammer) and membership reference, the client types you take and your languages, and how you found us (for example the campaign link you came through).
• Our check of your appointment: that and when we looked you up in the official register of tax advisors kept by the Federal Chamber of Tax Advisors (§ 86b StBerG), and what we noted from the entry.
• Your account and contract: your login (the password only as a secure hash), when you accepted which version of the participation terms, your plan (price, monthly or yearly payment, start and end dates), and the name and address for your invoices.
• Invoices and payments: the invoices we issue to you and whether they have been paid.
• Your activity on requests: which requests we sent you, and whether you opened, took, passed on, released or closed them, with the contact records you add; and whether clients tell us that you reached them.

We use this to run your participation: to check that you may act as a tax advisor, to send you requests, to give you access to the requests you take, to invoice the plan, and to keep the service reliable for clients, as the participation terms describe (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). We keep invoices because tax law requires it (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR). We note how you found us, and check that our emails reach you, in our legitimate interest in running and improving the platform (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Your data is hosted by Hetzner in Germany; our emails are sent through mailbox.org in Germany, where our mailbox is too. Both work for us under data processing agreements (Art. 28 GDPR). When you take a request, the client learns your name. We pass invoice data to our own tax advisor or to authorities only where the law requires it.

Your activity on a request is deleted together with that request (see section 7). Invoices are kept for as long as tax law requires, currently eight years (§ 147 AO, § 14b UStG). Everything else is deleted when your participation has ended and it is no longer needed for claims under the contract: at the latest three years after the end of the year in which your participation ended. Your rights under section 8 apply in full. The data of clients in requests and case files is covered by the participation terms, not by this section.

10. Changes

We will update this policy when our processing changes and indicate the date of the latest revision above.