> I assume that step comes with extra costs? No. The GbR does not have to be created formally. It exists just by deciding to start a company. There is no forma

> I assume that step comes with extra costs? No. The GbR does not have to be created formally. It exists just by deciding to start a company. There is no formality at all. This is, by the way, a fully functional company. It does not have an "i.G." suffix itself, because there is no process that could be completed. It already exists. It's kind of like you don't have to register to be a "participant in traffic" when you ride a bike, but you do when you ride a car. But there is not formal process to become a "participant in traffic". Now what you want to do is to limit liability and to do that you create the GmbH. This GmbH will then get the "i.G." suffix. In any case this is really only interesting for a lawyer to decide on edge cases. Such as what would happen if you break a law before being at the notary and things like that. In practice the process is just to draw up the contract (download and adapt a template), then go to the bank and notary in parallel. Then you're done. (Afterwards you also submit the data to the central register).