Incorporating a limited company in Germany • Hacker News Board

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#111

Post by blsquare » Sat, Feb 04, 2017, 6:17 AM UTC

helge5 wrote: post #107

realityking wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with some, disagree with some but this one surprised me: > and to migrate to a GmbH later is a PITA I've never done it myself but what I know it should just be a short trip to the notary, they take care of the rest. Did you have a different experience?

This is exactly how it works and I've done precisely this in real live, a UG to GmbH conversion. It is a non-issue. In fact the whole UG thing is setup towards this exact goal, conversion to a full GmbH (you even have to sideline profits to accomplish that). There are indeed some valid things in that comment, others seem just wrong.

It's def. not a non-issue. As you write yourself there some requirements to get there and in general you should do a migration to the GmbH after the end/before the beginning of a business year and not in-between. Just this restriction is a big bummer and paired with the other requirements creates some headache. So, you can't go to the notary and just opt to the GmbH, no you have to consult your tax consultant, find the right time, probably wait some months and prepare the switch properly.

> others seem just wrong.

Are you so kind and tell us which you think are wrong?

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#112

Post by crypt1d » Sat, Feb 04, 2017, 7:48 AM UTC

hhstartuper wrote: post #102

crypt1d wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in Germany and pay yourself a salary from an Estonian company, then you will only pay taxes in Germany and no taxes in Estonia. The 20% Estonian corporate tax does not apply to salaries for non-residents, but for things like dividends. P.S. Leapin is a company that specializes in accounting for online businesses looking to establish a presence in Estonia. You can find some more info on this stuff on their…

If you work on your own estonian company, but don't pay yourself money (all money are keeps on company's account) Is it a way?

This depends on how your home country treats the money on your company account, so its hard to say.

As far as Estonia is concerned you will not pay any taxes with them until you take out dividends or similar.

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#113

Post by alternize » Thu, Feb 16, 2017, 12:09 AM UTC

atemerev wrote: post #53

alternize wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

huh, where does your experience come from? currently running two small swiss it companies (3 and 6 employees), and ran several more in the past. none had a "full-time administrator". founding costs (notary, fees etc) were always around €2000 for GmbH and €5000 for AG. our yearly expense for an external accounting expert to do our end-of-year accounting and taxes is around 1k to 2k per company (i.e. 1 to 2 man-day).

Which canton are you incorporated in? My experience is with the canton of Geneva, where I have made multiple beginner's mistakes.

sorry for the late reply. nidwalden and zurich... there was not much difference between the process in the two cantons. we had a lawyer and an accountant help us in the beginning to get the hard-to-figure-out things during incorporation right. money well spent!