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

eidel.io

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

#271
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Sweden you can sell your company to a specialized company that will dissolve it for you (for example this one: https://www.standardbolag.com/services/liquidation ). This can be done in a matter of 1-2 weeks. In Sweden, you can of course also choose to dissolve it yourself, but nobody does that since it takes years, and it's pretty cheap to let someone else take care of it for you. It sounds like the same service i…

If not, my next question would be: what kind of process do you need to go through to sell a company in Germany? :)

afaik there is no formalized process to sell for winding down a company in germany as in sweden, though some attorneys offer a service to connect with some clients that want to start a company and try to do a swap, which is legally a grey area. I did that also once but it was a nightmare in a differnt way and took not much less time and energy. I am sure you can be lucky there if the timing is right and the people taking over are not complete idiots but it took still 1.6 years until everything was completely over. Only (maybe) worth it if the people taking over are totally vetted and the company they want to run is similar enough to the old one so the trigger for "wirtschaftlichen Neugründung" does not take action, otherwise they have to basically do the same as founding a company from scratch and it makes no sense financially.

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

#272
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Accepting cards” is not the same as “accepting credit cards” though… A lot of them only accept girocards and not credit cards…

Debitcards, not girocards. I have no girocard since years, and still can easily pay everywhere. But to be fair, the pandemia really pushed this even the small shops.

Ämter only take girocards or cash.

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

#273

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…

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?

As the other user said, this is just the conspiracy politcs obsessed partisan weirdos would like for you to believe. After all, if their side is so benevolent and immigrant loving, why haven't they pushed any genuine immigration system reforms instead of just creating a captive subclass in the form of illegal immigrants?

For instance, if Republicans are really so hateful of certain minorities, why do they not properly go after things like H1B mills (which benefits minorities more than the rich white people that they supposedly want to limit immigration to)? or take effective action to seal off the borders and make immigration policy stricter? As an immigrant myself, I'd take even that over the current hellish system where you spend a decent chunk of your life in limbo, unable to fully settle down because of the uncertainty, since at least then there would be the finality of immediately knowing the doors are closed. The only way the current system is bearable is if you approach it with total apathy, where you avoid getting too attached and just convince yourself that you can also make it in any other country.

Rather than negotiate measures to fix the immigration system (in either direction), both sides would prefer to keep expanding the class of people who are one technicality away from being kicked out, for Republicans it gives them the ability to promise stronger borders every election year, and for Democrats it gives the ability to promise aid to specifically illegal immigrants and of course once elected they can just say that the last guy left a mess and they had their hands full fixing just that or any version of "the other side isn't cooperating/compromising".

A particularly glaring example of this being their inability to agree on a stronger path to permanent residency for PhD holders. Considering that PhDs are generally funded by grants, not offering very easy immigration for PhD holders amounts to training foreigners at your own expense and sending them back to compete with you. PhD holders typically fit the "we only want the best of the best" position of the Republicans (even if we accept the conspiracy that they actually hate all minorities, it'd be a convenient way to 'wash' that image, without having to accept all that many minorities), and for Democrats it would be a very easy "look, we're slowly working to fix immigration" action.

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

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get married in Denmark: This not a joke, but my friends did it (German woman, Indian husband). It Germany it would have taken two weeks. In Denmark you get it done in an hour (minus the booking of the time at the civil registry).

I fail to imagine a scenario where "getting married fast" is a requirement. I mean you've supposedly been living together for a few years already at that point, so why is 2 weeks too much?

You could say the same about forming a company, or purchasing a house, or countless other things. It's when they all add up the issues begin.

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

#275
> And then, if you pay it out from Magic Holding GmbH to you personally, then yes, you pay ~26% capital gains tax – but the huge benefit here is that it could accrue investment returns in the meantime!

This isn't an optimisation and doesn't matter unless I'm misunderstanding what is being suggested. Multiplication is commutative so it doesn't matter if you pay the taxes before or after accruing returns, as long as your goal is to get that money to you.

$100 * 0.5 (for 50% income tax) * 2 (for 100% investment return) = $100 whichever order you do the multiplication.

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

#276
post #189
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As bad as Germany is, it is better than average. Eastern Europe is harder, and Asia borders on impossible. Africa is literally impossible.

Africa and Asia are pretty easy, you just pay a bribe

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

#277
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(rants) yep, you are German alright!

Truly the worst thing about living in Germany is the apparent national hobby of complaining about things that perhaps aren't great, but really aren't as bad as you might think. In practice, German schools are pretty decent, but they obsess about PISA scores and so neglect to ever notice what the schools are doing well. The train networks are fairly extensive, can be quite cheap depending on how you travel, and consis…

I went on exchange to Germany.

Somehow there should be a ranking of the foreign language abilities of countries. There Germany would do incredibly well.

It's strange that people obsess over math school rankings, but how many people do calculus beyond their schooling where as many, many people use a foreign language often in their work.

It's a non-BS thing people can learn at school and something that Northern Europeans do spectacularly well at.

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

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the amount of immigrants in Europe in general and in Germany in particular, I don't think they are trying to deter people. Or if they are trying it's not working. The incompetence is not confined to immigration, it's pretty much everywhere. Same goes for France actually.

The impression I got from the last time I was in Germany (some ~7 years ago), there's a going concern among at least some people that a certain ethnicity of immigrants is "taking over". This might be a pearl-clutching minority, or I may have completely misread the situation.

German reporting in. Disclaimer: I am biased as I think immigration is great and I wish the process was easier and faster for those seeking to live in Germany. I think your observation is sadly very correct and this minority is very well measurable and concerningly large and growing in a lot of places. Just look at how many people vote for the AfD. Those are the ones having that concern. Luckily some places(e.g. Hamburg, Berlin) are on average more open to foreigners than others (e.g. Sachsen).

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

#279
> Two important points on how to save time here!

>. International “startup” banks like Wise generally don’t support this, so don’t even try! You’ll lose multiple days going back and forth with their support, like I did. You can open a Wise bank account later when you’re properly incorporated.

The real optimization is not using Germany companies to begin with.

I'm a US citizen and US resident, I had some German limited partners in a small hedge fund several years back. The offshore feeder was in the Cayman Islands, alongside the Master Fund. Both had bank accounts only in US banks. (All forms with IRS and other regulators filed no problems there, good to have a business bank familiar with these things.)

Now to those particular investors, wiring money to a foreign bank with foreign transaction needs was too much for them. The US being a foreign bank from their perspective. They just wanted to use SEPA transactions and transaction instructions that they are familiar with, which are (potentially) instant.

This US citizen was able to sign up the Cayman Islands feeder into Wise for an EU bank account no problem, had SEPA details no problem. Makes it super easy to swap over to USD with few fees and wire it to the primary bank account.

Its also important to note that Wise has high transaction limits. Like $1,000,000 per transaction is the limit, its not a daily limit. so even if you get a large LP its not really a limit just multiple transactions. Not perfect, but way better than many other fintech app solutions for casual use.

Before Wise it was nearly impossible for an American to get real Eurozone banking easily after FATCA treaty was ratified. But with Wise it was pretty quick maybe 1 business day with support in their business sign up.

One point against Wise is that their Terms of Service are very restrictive. There are lots of legal activities you're not supposed to do with them.

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

#280
> The drawback of holding construct is that you have to found your holding company first, so you have to go through all of this twice.

The holding company doesn't have to be a German one

(and neither does the operating company, but you could follow this tutorial and have a holding company elsewhere)

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