VAT Compliance
Many advisers know the law. Few know your business from the inside.
For more than 30 years, Dr Fabian Keller has negotiated, restructured, financed and led through crises — as CFO, CEO, board member and head of a family office. Today, as Senior Counsel Tax & Compliance at Vogel, Sprinke & Kollegen, he builds the evidence architectures that keep trading and technology companies standing when VAT becomes existential. He did not move from the world of law firms into your business. He moved from your world into the law firm.
On your side of the table — for decades
When a managing director explains why a supplier must be onboarded within three days, why margins in electronics wholesale are thin, or why the bank gets nervous long before any assessment becomes final — nobody needs to translate that for him. He has owned those decisions himself:
As Chief Financial Officer and board member of a regulated fintech company, he led the IPO track, negotiated with regulators in three countries and built the finance, tax and compliance organisation from scratch. As Chief Executive Officer and board chair of a legal-tech venture, he closed a €260 million funding vehicle with international investors and negotiated frame agreements across five legal regimes. As CEO of a family office operating between Hong Kong and Switzerland, he ran a range of companies, all of them mid-sized — retail, e-commerce, high-tech, healthcare, energy. Before that: leadership roles in international consulting and media groups — strategy, sales, turnarounds.
The result is a rare combination: he reads a supply chain like a buyer, a liquidity plan like a CFO, a red flag like an auditor — and an evidence file like someone who knows that, in the end, people decide under pressure.
Scientific depth, not gut feeling
Practice without foundations is anecdote. Dr Keller combines both: a doctorate in economics and legal studies (magna cum laude), a Master of Laws with highest distinction (summa cum laude), a Bachelor of Laws (honours), an economics degree focused on financial mathematics, and a graduate programme in program management in New York. His method is a scientist’s method: every statement sourced, every check documented, every recommendation reasoned — the same discipline that runs through this knowledge repository.
Connected where the rules are made
VAT compliance changes faster than official gazettes are printed. Dr Keller maintains an ongoing professional dialogue with industry associations and with authorities at state and federal level — on precisely the topics of these pages: evidence architecture instead of blanket suspicion, workable diligence standards for mid-sized companies, digital reporting obligations with a sense of proportion. Clients benefit directly from that early-warning position. He is regularly present as an expert — annually at the IFA in Berlin and at the International Trade Conference (ITC) in Malta, where he most recently presented the Proof-of-Check concept to an international audience.
Clear roles. One team.
Transparency is part of evidence architecture — including about ourselves: Dr Keller is an economist and legal scholar, not a German Rechtsanwalt (attorney) and not a Steuerberater (certified tax adviser). That is precisely his value: he is the architect and negotiator at the interface of business, numbers and law. Legal advice and representation — before tax authorities, fiscal courts and in criminal tax proceedings — are provided by the attorneys and certified tax advisers of Vogel, Sprinke & Kollegen. In an engagement, both work as one team: the qualified professionals run the proceedings; Dr Keller builds, with you, the foundation on which they can be won — facts, processes, documentation, and communication with banks, trade credit insurers and business partners.
How he works
No lecture on statutes. Instead: You describe. He assesses. You know where you stand. In the first fifteen minutes you will not hear generalities — you will hear where the risk sits, what is strong, what is weak, and what should happen next. Fast. Practical. Confidential. Bring one case, one file or one question; that is all it takes to start. And when it burns: call the emergency line on a business day — you will be called back the same day.
Take it with you
No shop window without goods: read for yourself. Six publications — to download, pass on, argue with.
The rest is client work — and belongs in a conversation.
FAQ
Is Dr Keller a lawyer or a tax adviser?
No — and we say so deliberately, right at the top. Dr Keller is an economist and legal scholar (Ph.D., LL.M.) with more than three decades of leadership and negotiation practice. Legal advice and representation are handled by VSK’s attorneys and certified tax advisers. You get both: proceedings run by qualified professionals — and a sparring partner who understands your business.
What does his operating experience mean for me in practice?
Speed and translation. He spots in your processes what an auditor will later read as a red flag — because he has owned those same processes: purchasing, payment routes, logistics, bank relations. And he translates between management, tax function and defence counsel without losing time.
Who does he work for?
Managing directors, CFOs and heads of tax in trading and technology businesses — from mid-sized companies to group divisions. Especially where goods move across borders and VAT can become an existential issue.
How quickly can I get a slot?
The free 15-minute consultation can be booked at short notice — non-binding and, if you prefer, anonymous at first. In an emergency: call on a business day, and you will be called back the same day.
Let’s talk. Fifteen minutes, free and non-binding: You describe. We assess. You know where you stand. → Confidential first assessment Emergency? Call the emergency line — call-back today. | Prefer to test yourself first? → Missing trader quick check (8 questions, 3 minutes, anonymous)
Book your free 15-minute assessment →Or pick a slot now (Mon·Wed·Fri 10–12)