To me, this post reads like Claude wrote it. It has that cadence of staccato, fragments, repetition, punchlines to counterbalance previous AI writing styles. I’m wondering if it’s because it was translated or if it is just AI generated writing.
Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
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Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#572> Which leaves the only real question. Why 25,000 at all? It is my company and my risk. If I want to start with nothing, that is my call, not a toll the state collects before it will let me try. And the cheap door has a price of its own: to some clients, “UG” reads as “not serious,” and they would rather deal with a GmbH. The structure built to let me in quietly marks me for using it. The 25,000 is there to make sure…
> A company that starts with nothing wouldn't be a GmbH (limited liability company), it would be a GoH (company without liability), and there's a good reason why those don't exist... Those do exist in other countries. An LLC in the USA does not generally need to have a certain amount of assets. Such a company is more or less without liability until it has some assets; the worst case for its owners when it comes to a…
There's other types of companies. Like UG or freelancers or GbR.
Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#573Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#574Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have an UG for that. A GmbH is simply the wrong legal form for that sort of thing. You can create an UG with a single Euro on the bank account (and then immediately go bankrupt once you need to pay the notary).
OP’s point is that you don’t need money in the bank to open an LLC like you would in Germany.
You don't need money for the UG either. You might need money for operating expenses later etc, but that's not what OP complained about and should be similar for an LLC. (Depending on type of business, location etc)
Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#575To me, this post reads like Claude wrote it. It has that cadence of staccato, fragments, repetition, punchlines to counterbalance previous AI writing styles. I’m wondering if it’s because it was translated or if it is just AI generated writing.
and what's your problem with that? it reads fine and looks good
Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#576Earlier quoted context omitted.
That won't get you a VAT ID, which is the key thing he says he needs to be able to bill people outside of Germany. It is significantly cheaper than 9k EUR and faster than 6 months to get in the UK, however.
Do you really need a VAT ID though? There is the “reverse charge” mechanism, which IIRC you can use until you sell a lot in any given country. (IANAL)
Both parties having a VAT ID is actually a requirement to be able to use reverse charge: https://vatdb.com/reverse-charge/
Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#577Earlier quoted context omitted.
That system is silly. I can open a company, work for a year, acrue debt, acrue tax debt, close it. Nothing will happen. Company "estate" will be sold to cover the debt, which can also be nothing.
No, if you don't handle this correctly you become personally liable
Probably criminally liable for bankruptcy as well. At least in Germany (where I am vaguely familiar with the law) you lose bankruptcy protection for debts you take on that are knowingly not covered by existing assets or expected future income. This is usually hard to prove, but if your assets are 0 and there was never a viable plan all along they'll likely found you guilty. This means you become personally liable to the creditors and might also face jail time.
Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#578> Which leaves the only real question. Why 25,000 at all? It is my company and my risk. If I want to start with nothing, that is my call, not a toll the state collects before it will let me try. And the cheap door has a price of its own: to some clients, “UG” reads as “not serious,” and they would rather deal with a GmbH. The structure built to let me in quietly marks me for using it. The 25,000 is there to make sure…
Actually only half of the 25k is needed to start the GmbH
Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#579I love these stories. The timeline is precious. And the comments from folks saying "gee, you picked the most complicated business entity, joke's on you!"
Just looking at my own state (Michigan) I can form the most "complicated" entity for $60 filing fee. Using a fill-in-the-blank form online. And have it approved the same day for an additional $50. Get an EIN online from the IRS in 10 minutes. Walk to a bank and open an account in about another hour. Annual renewal fee is $20.
In less than a day and for $110, I have a corporation, EIN (federal tax registration number), and bank account. Open for business. An LLC is the same, just a different form filed with the state.
I can then open credit card accounts online in the business name, register for sales tax online (get the license in about a week), and open a stripe account.
Oh, and a businessowners general liability insurance policy is costing me $205 per year. $1 million in liability coverage.
Re: Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
#580Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the reality for the vast majority of larger companies. Quibbling with word choice is really not a good argument.
Try canceling your NYT subscription.
Let me support your argument by telling you what you just reminded me of...
I was briefly subscribed to the NYT from Germany. To my surprise, I couldn't cancel online, but had to call. (The EU has a law which requires that if you can subscribe online, you must be able to cancel online.)
They have national numbers for many countries, but they're just forwarders to the same call center, with notably mangled audio quality presumably due to multiple lossy compression algorithms applied at each hop of the call.
Additionally, there was lots of background noise when I got connected to a rep. Over this barely usable line, I was now asked to spell out my email address, which naturally took multiple attempts of painfully slow spelling before the rep was able to locate my account. (My very limited knowledge of the NATO alphabet didn't help.)
Of course, I then had to go through the spiel of declining alternative offers and providing a reason for my cancellation (all of which I never had to do in Germany before) before they finally confirmed it. Yeah, I'm glad about consumer protection law in the EU.