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Incorporating a limited company in Germany

thomas.skowron.biz

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Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#31

Post by retromario »

A couple comments (having started both an UG and GmbH):

- I don't recommend starting an UG with less than 2k capital. If you do the minimum (1 euro), you won't have anything to pay your startup bills and it costs extra money (and a trip to the notary) to change your company's investment capital.

- While a GmbH requires 25k capital, only half has to be paid into the company. The rest is marked as a liability on the shareholders.

- A GmbH is generally looked upon as "more serious" than an UG. Some companies won't interact with you if you're an UG, but this is changing over time.

- For what it's worth, I used to hate the bureaucracy, and it can be streamlined further but over the years (and multiple attempts) I've come appreciate how it reduces the risk that you are dealing with shady companies.

- Thanks for the tip about Fidor bank! Setting up a company bank account is a pain in the ass in Germany.

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#32

Post by jankotek »

JPLeRouzic wrote: post #27
jankotek wrote: post #10

Germany is probably bad option within EU. I would recommend Bulgaria: flat tax rate 10% on corporate income and capital gains. Considerably cheaper office and accounting cost.

Interesting, is there some kind of e-residency as in Estonia?

To run corporation you should have physical presence in Estonia as well.

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#33

Post by harperlee »

retromario wrote: post #31

A couple comments (having started both an UG and GmbH): - I don't recommend starting an UG with less than 2k capital. If you do the minimum (1 euro), you won't have anything to pay your startup bills and it costs extra money (and a trip to the notary) to change your company's investment capital. - While a GmbH requires 25k capital, only half has to be paid into the company. The rest is marked as a liability on the sh…

Can't you just donate money to the company? Would that entail tax?

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#34

Post by tobltobs »

I incorporated a Limited in the past in Switzerland, Germany and France. Switzerland is a snap, Germany is unnecessary time consuming. France is hell.

Clarification: Setting up a SARL in France is comparable to Germany, but the red tape to run it is hell.

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#35

Post by alternize »

atemerev wrote: post #3

The same story in Switzerland, perhaps even worse. Any company here generally requires a full-time administrator to handle the paperwork (and salaries here are huge). Or you can outsource it to the agency, but it will cost at least $10k/year, even for the smallest operations (cheaper than hiring a full-time administrator, however, agencies tend to miss things).

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).

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#36

Post by return0 »

jcrei wrote: post #11

Estonia, simple forms, simple tax system (even a layman can understand it and can do their own taxes or small biz taxes). No need to visit to open a company or bank account if you have an e-resident card. E-residency cards are available to citizens of most nations.

How is their banking/financial/legal services compared to countries that have been doing it for decades, e.g. malta, cyprus, ireland?

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#37

Post by loxs »

LanguageBarrier wrote: post #26

I would not recommend Bulgaria, Estonia or any other "dodgy" countries to form a limited company alas you yourself are from that country. For a lot of big businesses simply looking at a company address where the country has no to bad rep is already a red flag. So you will have to do a lot of convincing work to do if you want to get funding. Even a UK limited is the running gag in upper management since it needs next…

I wonder how did you come up to put Bulgaria and Estonia in the same bucket. The two countries have almost nothing in common. I am a Bulgarian native and for my current endeavor I seriously consider creating an Estonian company.

Re: Incorporating a limited company in Germany

#39

Post by loxs »

JPLeRouzic wrote: post #27
jankotek wrote: post #10

Germany is probably bad option within EU. I would recommend Bulgaria: flat tax rate 10% on corporate income and capital gains. Considerably cheaper office and accounting cost.

Interesting, is there some kind of e-residency as in Estonia?

No, and dealing with the government is quite an adventure, even for natives (as I am). I certainly do not recommend, unless you have a Bulgarian native co-founder or/and lots of money to spend on good accountants/representatives.
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