141–150 of 1001 posts
Having founded a company in Germany, I would never under any circumstances do it again. Notaries should not exist, and could be replaced by a simple website. It's all incredibly tedious and slow, and there are lots of reoccurring work and fees. Closing a company takes 2-3 years too, even if there are no irregularities.
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how are you comparing renouncing citizenship with temporarily leaving the country
I'm comparing 'exit taxes'. But also if you leave Germany, you're no longer subject to German income tax, and you have to both leave the US and renounce citizenship to become no longer subject to US income tax.
There is also a brutal and inflexible exit tax. Should you decide to leave Germany, even temporarily, you will be faced with a tax of ~30% of the current valuation of your worldwide shareholdings (in companies in which you have >1% ownership). I commented on this in more detail in another post a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39786934#39788110 In the author's case, because he is using a holding comp…
From the article you linked in that comment[1], it seems like this exit tax only applied to companies where you own 1% or more? and it's structured as the capital gains tax, but due now, so on the current value minus your cost basis. The US has an exit tax if you renounce citizenship, and it's assessed on your entire net worth. If the article you linked is accurate, this german tax seems much more reasonable. EDIT: a…
Any recommendations what would be the best place to found a company for someone who's living in Germany?
To be honest, I don't think much of notaries and believe that they stifle innovation and harm the German economy, especially SMEs, but also clubs and citizens. For example, the purchase or sale of a property can only be carried out with a notary who reads the purchase contract for both parties. For this service, he charges a fee of around 1.5% of the sale price. The entire profession is strictly protected by law and…
Wow and I thought realtors getting a % cut on sales was a scam, at least in NA when you get to the notary, it's a flat fee.
In California (I think other states, but each state has it's own specific laws) the fees are fixed below a small set amount.
https://www.nationalnotary.org/knowledge-center/about-notari...
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Really I think this is overdone. I fully appreciate Berlin is disfunctional, but in other regions (I live in Thüringen) things go quite quickly.
I don't think that it is overdone. It's bad everywhere, and it's much worse in Berlin. If you've experienced anything like a modern bureaucracy, Germany is infuriatingly backwards. The article is painfully accurate down to the minute detail.
Germany is not at the cutting edge, but it is far from the worse. The interactions I have had with bureaucratic systems in Thüringen have all been entirely fine. Friendly people, clear process, done quickly. Obviously that is only an n=1. It is a rural area that is not overloaded as Berlin is.
Which country would you consider "modern"? My experiences:
In the UK the way you prove who you are is literally a physical copy of your water bill.
Spain, some things work well enough, others are insane.
US, massive variability from state to state and government department.
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From what I heard the cut the public funding for Digitalization by 90% last year. It truly is like going into a a -20yr time machine living here. Soon you'll be able to use a credit card in most shops even!
I moved from the UK to Germany in 1996 and back then the banking & payment was just sooo backwards. Some stores were incredibly anachronistic (Lerche springs to mind - since closed down) Sorry to hear it's still the same.
[0] https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.stuttgart-album-zu...
Having founded a company in Germany, I would never under any circumstances do it again. Notaries should not exist, and could be replaced by a simple website. It's all incredibly tedious and slow, and there are lots of reoccurring work and fees. Closing a company takes 2-3 years too, even if there are no irregularities.
Where would you do it then instead?
I wonder: why EU did not try to somewhat harmonize company law? I can understand that things like tax code, penal code would not benefit from unification across disparate societies, but companies seem like a ripe target. This should have begun 20 or so years ago.
Given the domination of Germany and France in EU, thank the universe it didn't. Signed, a citizen of an EU state where you can create a company by digitally signing one form and paying the equivalent of $300.
You'd be surprised to hear that you can do that in Germany, too. Costs about 25€ (depends on the municipality) and takes about 30min.
The blog post was referring to a very specific form of incorporation. There's not just the ones mentioned in there.
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Even the USA does not have harmonized company law. Pretty much anything except what concerns the IRS says is in the hand of the individual states. Why would you expect the EU to do so?
Someone in the US can start a Delaware LLC or C corporation without living in Delaware. Can someone living in Germany set up an LLC or corporation in Denmark or Estonia instead of Germany?