5 ms·

glaring omissions from the article what are the personal and corp tax rates? (high!) and how easy is it to hire and fire employees (hard I hear). No one doubts

by chadp 15y ago

glaring omissions from the article what are the personal and corp tax rates? (high!) and how easy is it to hire and fire employees (hard I hear). No one doubts the nightlife and leafy suburbs of germany are nice

codeup 15y ago
And how easy is it to register a company?
- hussong 15y ago
  Setting up an UG (sort of like a private partnership) has become relatively easy (couple days) and cheap (couple hundred bucks), while a GmbH (LLC) or an AG (corporation) is still a lot more complex and costly (min. 25K EUR capital brought in for a GmbH).
hussong 15y ago
Personal tax rates are higher, at the same time you get better (and cheaper) healthcare. Corporate tax rates are indeed higher in Germany. At the same time, there are lots of funding opportunities for startups from communal, national and EU business development programs, that can be seen as sort of a tax break. Hiring is probably harder, since programmers are generally less interested in startups and prefer safe corporate jobs (outside of Berlin). Wages are significantly lower in Berlin than in West German cities. Firing is much harder than in the U.S.
- sneak 15y ago
  The healthcare is not included in the cost of personal taxes. Private healthcare here is much better, and about the same cost. It's a red herring.
  - hussong 15y ago
    Of course it's a separate payment, I was thinking in terms of total cost per employee.
- mdariani 15y ago
  firing employees is in germany not really difficult, especially not for startups. every employee must serve a 3-6 months test period until he gets a professional contract. during the test period you will see, if the employee is performing well or not and you can fire the person easily the next day, if you want. and hiring people in germany is much easier than in the valley or in new york, where you have huge competition from the big ones like google, facebook etc...

by chadp 15y ago

codeup 15y ago

And how easy is it to register a company?

hussong 15y ago
Setting up an UG (sort of like a private partnership) has become relatively easy (couple days) and cheap (couple hundred bucks), while a GmbH (LLC) or an AG (corporation) is still a lot more complex and costly (min. 25K EUR capital brought in for a GmbH).

hussong 15y ago

Personal tax rates are higher, at the same time you get better (and cheaper) healthcare. Corporate tax rates are indeed higher in Germany. At the same time, there are lots of funding opportunities for startups from communal, national and EU business development programs, that can be seen as sort of a tax break. Hiring is probably harder, since programmers are generally less interested in startups and prefer safe corporate jobs (outside of Berlin). Wages are significantly lower in Berlin than in West German cities. Firing is much harder than in the U.S.

sneak 15y ago
The healthcare is not included in the cost of personal taxes. Private healthcare here is much better, and about the same cost. It's a red herring.
- hussong 15y ago
  Of course it's a separate payment, I was thinking in terms of total cost per employee.
mdariani 15y ago
firing employees is in germany not really difficult, especially not for startups. every employee must serve a 3-6 months test period until he gets a professional contract. during the test period you will see, if the employee is performing well or not and you can fire the person easily the next day, if you want. and hiring people in germany is much easier than in the valley or in new york, where you have huge competition from the big ones like google, facebook etc...