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How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

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Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#301

Post by dgfitz »

roenxi wrote: post #281
callalex wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a USA perspective, I find that usually when a bureaucratic process is hopelessly broken, it is because a small portion of the population actively hates the people that would benefit from the process and want to harm them. However they cannot legally or popularly discriminate against them so instead they destroy the processes that benefit the hated group. Do you get that impression where you are too?

This perspective remains kinda crazy. Why do US people keep trying to route control of major parts of their life through a system where they believe people who "actively hates the people who would benefit from the process" have significant influence? People come up with this from time to time but the logical conclusion is small governments. It has been a few centuries now and there hasn't been any progress in improvi…

Being a white, middle-aged, middle-class male in America I can say I have no productive things to say about how my local, state, or federal government has benefitted myself or my family beyond the things everyone else also benefits from. I don’t get assistance for anything, I don’t get breaks on anything, no free services, etc.

If your first reaction to this is “well you don’t need anything!” you must be one of the people that was astonished at how the 2016 election went.

No I didn’t vote for the guy and I hope he loses this time.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#302

Post by ascorbic »

throwaway11460 wrote: post #38
RicoElectrico wrote: post #20

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.

What they should actually do is allow anybody to register a company in any EU state and then operate in any other. Then the member states would have to compete, and Estonia would be the European Delaware. This may be theoretically possible now, but practically it's not so easy.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#303

Post by zrules »

nicbou wrote: post #114

I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…

From all the comments in this thread it seems like everyone is in agreement Denmark has less bureaucracy. Is it also a better place to set up a company? Do more companies get acquired from Denmark than Germany?

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#304

Post by cscurmudgeon »

ab_testing wrote: post #295
hariharan_uno wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. I have been living here for 8 years, and recently applied for a permanent settlement permit. My application went into a blackhole for more than 4 months, while my existing permit expired, essentially making me a prisoner here (I can stay and work in Germany but if I travel internationally, I won't be allowed entry back). Meanwhile, my applications for a temporary travel permit were unanswered for…

Not saying Germany is slow, but that is one area where US is far behind. 21 Months - This is the current processing time for a green card after you have sent in all the paperwork to the USCIS for processing. During that time, you get no updates and of-course if you leave the country without AP, your application is considered to be abandoned. https://imgur.com/a/t8rYOjv

Part of the reason is the green card queue size for US is much larger than that for Germany.

The USCIS website also shows your status and gives a rough timeline.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#305

Post by JumpCrisscross »

dragonwriter wrote: post #258
ufocia wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why this fascination with Delaware? How are Delaware corps different from other states' corps?

Mostly, it’s that Delaware’s corporate law is more developed so investors have more certainty of what they are getting; this is also a self-reinforcing condition, since the preference for Delaware corps means more corporate issues get resolved under Delaware law.

> Delaware’s corporate law is more developed so investors have more certainty of what they are getting

Delaware courts are also efficient, which makes litigation less likely to turn into a multi-year and multi-million dollar affair.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#306

Post by JumpCrisscross »

nolist_policy wrote: post #159
paleotrope wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want to take the risk of losing your home just to start a business?

Personal insolvency sucks, but you won't actually loose your home here in Germany.

> Personal insolvency sucks, but you won't actually loose your home here in Germany

Germany insolvency can take a decade, make getting a flat or even keeping your bank account a challenge and rarely results in debt relief to boot [1].

[1] http://www.privatinsolvenz-hilfe.org/en/german-bankruptcy-la...

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#308

Post by cf »

nicbou wrote: post #114

I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…

I just want to take a moment and say your website has been a real lifesaver. So many headaches avoided by consulting it!

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#310

Post by throwaway11460 »

qayxc wrote: post #149
throwaway11460 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

So a normal GmbH, which would be the equivalent of what I'm talking about, can be incorporated online for 25 EUR in 30 minutes?

I thought that's what the article is about. What's so specific about the form of incorporation they are talking about? A limited liability company is the most basic form of a corporation...

Sole proprietorship / self-employment can be started here for around 20 EUR too, but that's not a company. Or does Germany have some other forms of companies that I don't know?

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