Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
1–10 of 567 posts
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#2Something I've noticed with German business law is that it is very much structured in such a way that if you aren't an incumbent player, you are essentially incentivized to be absorbed by them.
In the US we do have issues with businesses, but it's not like the Bosch, Thyssen, or Tschira family are any less unethical.
The level of hierarchy I've noticed in German firms and founders is insane to say the least. I'd love to do some quantitative research into this, but I haven't been in academia or policy for years now.
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#3Is there a look back period? What stops me from selling my business to my buddy the day I leave and then buying it back the day after?
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#4also buy fax machine, dozen ring binders, and paper shredder before you start that business
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#5> And then your exit tax is calculated by taking the average of the past 3 years of earnings of that company, multiplied by 13.75 (which is crazy), and then taking 60% of that which is taxed at your personal income tax rate (likely 42%; Teileinkünfteverfahren)
This does not match the results from 5 minutes of googling, not for individuals at least. What is being taxed is the shares you're holding, as if you're selling them, which results in a tax on their increase in value compared to when you've bought them. [disclaimer: I just did a quick search on this, I'm not a tax consultant or lawyer.]
I haven't looked for the regulations on companies moving their headquarters away from Germany. It's possible those rules are the above, and the author confused them with the rules for individuals.
Either way, if the author believes they're right, they should dig up some citations. There are none in that article. Is this based on advice they've received? Did they do their own research? Are they a tax consultant or lawyer? 13.75 is a very "spottable" number, how about a link to the law that has that number?
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#6Something I've noticed with German business law is that it is very much structured in such a way that if you aren't an incumbent player, you are essentially incentivized to be absorbed by them. In the US we do have issues with businesses, but it's not like the Bosch, Thyssen, or Tschira family are any less unethical. The level of hierarchy I've noticed in German firms and founders is insane to say the least. I'd love…
German here. I fully agree that German companies tend to be crazy hierarchical.
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#7also buy fax machine, dozen ring binders, and paper shredder before you start that business
And the right color pen. God forbid you fill in an official form in the wrong color pen.
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#8[deleted]
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#9[flagged]
Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big
#10> And then your exit tax is calculated by taking the average of the past 3 years of earnings of that company, multiplied by 13.75 (which is crazy), and then taking 60% of that which is taxed at your personal income tax rate (likely 42%; Teileinkünfteverfahren) This does not match the results from 5 minutes of googling, not for individuals at least. What is being taxed is the shares you're holding, as if you're sellin…
They basically treat you as if you sold your shares or company when leaving the country. If you run a one man company that is currently making a good profit, this can become really expensive.