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As a Dutch person I never understood this push until someone told me (and this is true in 2026!!!) that if you open a LLC (Gmbh?) in Germany you have to physica

As a Dutch person I never understood this push until someone told me (and this is true in 2026!!!) that if you open a LLC (Gmbh?) in Germany you have to physically go to the notary and have a person READ OUT all the statutes to you. The whole process including banks accounts etc... can apparently take months in total. Personally I would not create "EU-INC" but just make all local entities legal in every country. Then countries could compete to be the best system to attract companies and entrepreneurs.

_petronius 9mo ago
This is true of all contract notarization in Germany (even when buying a house, jesus that is a slog), and although it is a bendy-banana level silly thing that people focus on, isn't actually the biggest problem in company founding here. MUCH more problematic is unfavorable tax rules making equity compensation difficult, capital requirements, legal/notary fees, and an investor class that is notoriously skittish. If you could solve all those problems and still had to go listen to the Notar recite the contract in a monotone, it would be a worth trade.
- askonomm 9mo ago
  That's crazy. Notarization in Estonia can be done entirely online using a digital signature, just like everything else here is done (including voting, getting married, getting divorced, filing taxes, opening/closing a company, etc). From all I hear Germany is still stuck in the 90s for some reason.
  - tietjens 9mo ago
    90s is charitable. Most important thing here is that nothing changes. Everything new is considered suspicious.
    - askonomm 9mo ago
      The weird thing is that, at least as an Estonian, I would've never expected this from Germany. Italy, Spain? Sure. Germany? That just feels weird.
      - vander_elst 9mo ago
        Germany is incredibly under developed in the digitalization plus the amount of red tape to do even basic things is also very large as well. Getting rid of these things takes a lot of will power and at the moment there is very little.
      - ost-ing 9mo ago
        Germany never thought it would be in the current situation - decaying health care, pension system, cornerstone industry in decline, lack of digitalization, the list goes on. Massive reforms are needed, action is needed, but there is too much inertia in the system to change anything quickly. Smaller countries like Estonia have the ability to be much more nimble.
        tietjens 9mo ago
        Yes somehow they believed the 90s continue despite zero public investment. They talk about the dangers of debt for future generations, but they are silent about the infrastructure debt they are saddling their children with by not investing on any serious scale.
        iknowstuff 9mo ago
        Fun fact, the Bundestag is one of the most representative parliaments in the world thanks to MMP. Is the executive dysfunctional? Is it the federal split into 16 tiny states causing this? If it was just a matter of size, similar/larger countries would be in the same state, and at least one of your smaller states would get ahead right?
      - usrnm 9mo ago
        Just wait until you try to use their trains
    - _petronius 9mo ago
      More like no one is willing to stick their neck out politically to argue for the positive public policy changes, or challenge regulatory interpretation needed to make real change. Plenty of people see the problems, and even want to fix them, and get stymied by political processes that abhor actually having to argue for change to electorate.
  - the_mitsuhiko 9mo ago
    I can also listen to a notary online in Austria. I just absolutely do not want to have the notary involved in the first place.
  - yencabulator 9mo ago
    Lots of systems are stuck in very old ways of working and using humans as cogs. My American utility bill has a typo in my name that is not there in the online system through which I opened my account; a human in a back office read text from one app and typed it into another. Maybe there was even a piece of paper involved.
- hijodelsol 9mo ago
  I agree. The notary process is a bit annoying, but it only costs 500-1,000 euros. Yes, that's not ideal, but if you're building a proper business, that shouldn't be an issue. You can typically get an appointment within a week, no matter where you are or where your company is registered. However, once the notary sends your documents off, it can take days or weeks for the registry courts to handle them. You have to register with ten other places yourselves, and there's no guidance. There are different forms and requirements, and the yearly costs just for a basic tax declaration are in the thousands. They can be 5-10% of early startup expenses for no good reason. There are also some shady setups, such as a private company handling the company registry for the state. You have to pay this company each year to publish your books. Accessing that data still costs money, except for the largest companies. It doesn't help with transparency, but it is a public-private rent-seeking nightmare that (possibly) arose due to conflicts of interest among certain politicians (the company's CEO has a higher-level position in political party) and lobbying.
  - pjc50 9mo ago
    In the UK there's an API https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/overview/ https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/overvie... and it costs £50. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/companies-house-fees/companies-house-fees https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/companies-house-f... Why is Germany ten times less efficient?
    - direwolf20 9mo ago
      Germany really wants you to be a sole trader with unlimited liability, and treats a liability shield as something you shouldn't have.
  - tchalla 9mo ago
    > but it only costs 500-1,000 euros. Yes, that's not ideal, but if you're building a proper business, that shouldn't be an issue. It is and should be an issue. You shouldn’t be required to put in any money towards a text to speech translator let alone 1000€.
- bgnn 9mo ago
  This here is the problem for most of EU countries. We Dutch are proud how easy it is to do business here. Maybe, compared to some other countries. But starting a BV here and 1 month later finding a representative of a trade union (metal sector, which somehow semiconductors fall under together with car garages, petrol stations, steel factories..) and asking me to come to their office in person to explain what we do, and calculate how much their cut will be was weird at first. Of course being extremely busy with actual business, I forgot, and got a letter with an 100k Euros invoice attached. Apparently they assumed 15 employees with 45k gross salary, and thought this is a fair trade union contribution! When I didn't respond to that, while discussing it with our lawyers, they sent a fine over this invoice which made it 140k. This is all within 3-4 months of registering mind you! At the end the lawyers handled that, but yeah, what the hell..
  - Am4TIfIsER0ppos 9mo ago
    > finding a representative of a trade union > how much their cut will be Did you have any employees yet? I guess so. Isn't it the employees' responsibility pay for their union membership?
    - f_devd 9mo ago
      > Isn't it the employees' responsibility pay for their union membership? No, contributions are handled by the employer/company
      - deleted 9mo ago
        [deleted]
      - bgnn 9mo ago
        Individuals pay like 25-30 Euronth contribution, which is tax deductible. Employers can pay a lot, like 10% or more, which is often going to a social security fund.
  - rambambram 9mo ago
    These trade unions are notorious for that. I worked as a labor legal advisor and especially the unions for temporary employment agency start 'barking' and demand loads of money (even from years back). Sometimes it's not even clear which union is applicable. You probably have all the info right now, but make sure everything is 'in line'. I mean, have your company codes at the tax authority match the applicable union match the actual things that your company does. Depending on the jobs of the employees, it might be smart to split the company into multiple legal entities. All in all you can be happy that this happened within a couple of months. Finding this out when you're years underway and then having to pay millions... I've seen plenty of these cases. Want to start a business in The Netherlands? Make sure to do a 'CAO check' first, think about how to structure your company (one entity? multiple entities? what job goes where?), and do these checks again once you pivot or make certain changes to the actual work that your company does. The rationale for this is also pretty simple: somebody got to pay for all this nice social security. They say it's part of the risk of being an entrepreneur.
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
layer8 9mo ago
> Personally I would not create "EU-INC" but just make all local entities legal in every country. That’s basically already the case. You can incorporate in one member state and offer your services in another member state. That’s part of what the EU assures. Still, there are many reasons why it doesn’t make sense for people to incorporate in any random member state.
peterspath 9mo ago
Same in the Netherlands for BV's. At least a few years ago, maybe it changed...
- t0mas88 9mo ago
  All of the heavy BV requirements changed in 2012. You can now start a BV very quickly, if you want you can do it online, and without any minimum capital requirement.
scirob 9mo ago
Looks like as per 2022 it is possible to register a GMBH in Germany fully online https://www.brak.de/newsroom/news/gmbh-und-ug-koennen-ab-1-august-2022-online-gegruendet-werden/ https://www.brak.de/newsroom/news/gmbh-und-ug-koennen-ab-1-a... also https://www.ihk.de/stuttgart/fuer-unternehmen/recht-und-steuern/gesellschaftsrecht-unternehmensformen/wahl-der-rechtsform-gesellschaftsrecht/gmbh/online-gruendung-gmbh-5536010 https://www.ihk.de/stuttgart/fuer-unternehmen/recht-und-steu... here are the online notaries: https://online.notar.de/ https://online.notar.de/ Firma.de estimates 6 weeks https://www.firma.de/en/company-formation/how-to-set-up-a-gmbh-the-definitive-guide-to-starting-a-limited-liability-company-in-germany/ https://www.firma.de/en/company-formation/how-to-set-up-a-gm... beglaubigt.de estimates 3 weeks https://beglaubigt.de/ug-gruenden https://beglaubigt.de/ug-gruenden Holvi estimates 4 weeks https://blog.holvi.com/de/gmbh-oder-ug-gr%C3%BCnden-2025-ablauf-kosten https://blog.holvi.com/de/gmbh-oder-ug-gr%C3%BCnden-2025-abl...
- prasoon2211 9mo ago
  I founded a UG and a GmbH in 2024. It took me 3 months total including visits to the notary (who charges a non-insignificant sum for their services). I did this as a subsidiary for a US company and literally had to email and call people every few days to move the process along (mostly, it was the banks who somehow expected us to be a multi-national company and wanted to charge an arm and a leg just to let us open a bank account. Most banks outright refused us). When the notary finally filed the paperwork to the court, the court replied after a few weeks with additional clarifications for which we had to go AGAIN to the notary to do the whole song and dance of them chanting at us in German at 1000 words per minute. Everything took painfully long and delayed investment for while. People have absolutely no idea how painful it is to merely have the incorporated entity available. Then, it takes a few weeks to get your tax ID - this is when you can start employing people / accepting payments etc.
  - woodson 9mo ago
    The bank issues/refusals may have something to do with FATCA. If you have anything to do with the US in terms of taxes, many EU banks don’t want you as their customer. If it’s a subsidiary of a foreign company, then a lot of paperwork is required to prove that the foreign owners actually exist.
usrnm 9mo ago
> you have to physically go to the notary and have a person READ OUT all the statutes to you. I guess, you've never bought a house in the Netherlands then, because it's the same exact process
- hexbin010 9mo ago
  That is beyond hilarious lol. Finally found something the UK does better than the Netherlands ;)
  - dark-star 9mo ago
    I never understood why people focus on this "reading aloud" so much. It's not so much about the reading out loud, it's about making sure you understand (so that you cannot later claim "but I didn't know about this, nobody explained it to me properly")
    - zdragnar 9mo ago
      What does reading it aloud make a difference to you reading it yourself? You can still claim that they misspoke or had an accent and you misheard or any of a dozen other excuses. The whole point of a contract is you sign your name to the words on the paper, and you are attesting that the words therein are correct and what you agree to.
- apexalpha 9mo ago
  I am living in my second house I bought and they absolutely did not. They just confirmed I was buying a house for X. They did not read the whole thing.
  - Kiala 9mo ago
    A reading is mandatory (art. 43 WNA), but a party may opt for a limited reading if it declares that it has read and understood the content.
bmicraft 9mo ago
> Personally I would not create "EU-INC" but just make all local entities legal in every country. Then countries could compete to be the best system to attract companies and entrepreneurs. Like the current downward spiral of US states competing who can have the lowest corporate tax while letting their infrastructure crumble? But hey, that's a long term thing and we don't think about those. Only which companies move to my state in the next year/quarter/month.
AlanYx 9mo ago
I'm surprised that Germany never relaxed the in-person notarization requirements during COVID. A lot of jurisdictions around the world did change their rules to allow remote notarization.
- martin_a 9mo ago
  They did. This can be done online since August 2022.
  - AlanYx 9mo ago
    Interesting, thanks! Apparently it requires a German eID-enabled ID card (or compatible EU ID) and doesn't include transactions involving real estate, but still it's progress.
    - lima 9mo ago
      The German eID system had a bad start but it works fine now.
Fraaaank 9mo ago
It's the same in the Netherlands. There is European legislation since 2024 that allows 'digital' notaries (Directive 2019/1151). Not many notaries support it though.
- t0mas88 9mo ago
  In the Netherlands it's much simpler. The notary only has to identify you for their record keeping, no mandatory reading of things etc. And once identified for something you can easily authorise the notary to sign other things on your behalf as well. We did that all the time when for example adding new entities to a group structure. Just e-sign the authorisation and that's all.
tchalla 9mo ago
If only it were that. You have to put up 25000€ in capital and pay absurd amount of fees to the notary for essentially being a text to speech translator.
- lima 9mo ago
  The minimum capital requirement is the whole point of a GmbH. If you don't want it, you can found a UG, which is the same thing with no capital requirement.
  - apexalpha 9mo ago
    If both are the same what’s the point of having 2?
    - wasmitnetzen 9mo ago
      Trustworthiness. You know a GmbH has at least 25000€ you can sue them for. And a UG has to put parts of their profits into becoming a GmbH, so eventually everyone big enough is a GmbH.
yencabulator 9mo ago
In USA, I had to get paperwork notarized to have the local water utility open an account for me.
lima 9mo ago
Not anymore, Germany has a streamlined online notarization process for creating a simple GmbH now. I've recently managed to get everything done in <1 week, including bank account. Progress!

_petronius 9mo ago

This is true of all contract notarization in Germany (even when buying a house, jesus that is a slog), and although it is a bendy-banana level silly thing that people focus on, isn't actually the biggest problem in company founding here. MUCH more problematic is unfavorable tax rules making equity compensation difficult, capital requirements, legal/notary fees, and an investor class that is notoriously skittish. If you could solve all those problems and still had to go listen to the Notar recite the contract in a monotone, it would be a worth trade.

askonomm 9mo ago
That's crazy. Notarization in Estonia can be done entirely online using a digital signature, just like everything else here is done (including voting, getting married, getting divorced, filing taxes, opening/closing a company, etc). From all I hear Germany is still stuck in the 90s for some reason.
- tietjens 9mo ago
  90s is charitable. Most important thing here is that nothing changes. Everything new is considered suspicious.
  - askonomm 9mo ago
    The weird thing is that, at least as an Estonian, I would've never expected this from Germany. Italy, Spain? Sure. Germany? That just feels weird.
    - vander_elst 9mo ago
      Germany is incredibly under developed in the digitalization plus the amount of red tape to do even basic things is also very large as well. Getting rid of these things takes a lot of will power and at the moment there is very little.
    - ost-ing 9mo ago
      Germany never thought it would be in the current situation - decaying health care, pension system, cornerstone industry in decline, lack of digitalization, the list goes on. Massive reforms are needed, action is needed, but there is too much inertia in the system to change anything quickly. Smaller countries like Estonia have the ability to be much more nimble.
      - tietjens 9mo ago
        Yes somehow they believed the 90s continue despite zero public investment. They talk about the dangers of debt for future generations, but they are silent about the infrastructure debt they are saddling their children with by not investing on any serious scale.
      - iknowstuff 9mo ago
        Fun fact, the Bundestag is one of the most representative parliaments in the world thanks to MMP. Is the executive dysfunctional? Is it the federal split into 16 tiny states causing this? If it was just a matter of size, similar/larger countries would be in the same state, and at least one of your smaller states would get ahead right?
    - usrnm 9mo ago
      Just wait until you try to use their trains
  - _petronius 9mo ago
    More like no one is willing to stick their neck out politically to argue for the positive public policy changes, or challenge regulatory interpretation needed to make real change. Plenty of people see the problems, and even want to fix them, and get stymied by political processes that abhor actually having to argue for change to electorate.
- the_mitsuhiko 9mo ago
  I can also listen to a notary online in Austria. I just absolutely do not want to have the notary involved in the first place.
- yencabulator 9mo ago
  Lots of systems are stuck in very old ways of working and using humans as cogs. My American utility bill has a typo in my name that is not there in the online system through which I opened my account; a human in a back office read text from one app and typed it into another. Maybe there was even a piece of paper involved.
hijodelsol 9mo ago
I agree. The notary process is a bit annoying, but it only costs 500-1,000 euros. Yes, that's not ideal, but if you're building a proper business, that shouldn't be an issue. You can typically get an appointment within a week, no matter where you are or where your company is registered. However, once the notary sends your documents off, it can take days or weeks for the registry courts to handle them. You have to register with ten other places yourselves, and there's no guidance. There are different forms and requirements, and the yearly costs just for a basic tax declaration are in the thousands. They can be 5-10% of early startup expenses for no good reason. There are also some shady setups, such as a private company handling the company registry for the state. You have to pay this company each year to publish your books. Accessing that data still costs money, except for the largest companies. It doesn't help with transparency, but it is a public-private rent-seeking nightmare that (possibly) arose due to conflicts of interest among certain politicians (the company's CEO has a higher-level position in political party) and lobbying.
- pjc50 9mo ago
  In the UK there's an API https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/overview/ https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/overvie... and it costs £50. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/companies-house-fees/companies-house-fees https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/companies-house-f... Why is Germany ten times less efficient?
  - direwolf20 9mo ago
    Germany really wants you to be a sole trader with unlimited liability, and treats a liability shield as something you shouldn't have.
- tchalla 9mo ago
  > but it only costs 500-1,000 euros. Yes, that's not ideal, but if you're building a proper business, that shouldn't be an issue. It is and should be an issue. You shouldn’t be required to put in any money towards a text to speech translator let alone 1000€.
bgnn 9mo ago
This here is the problem for most of EU countries. We Dutch are proud how easy it is to do business here. Maybe, compared to some other countries. But starting a BV here and 1 month later finding a representative of a trade union (metal sector, which somehow semiconductors fall under together with car garages, petrol stations, steel factories..) and asking me to come to their office in person to explain what we do, and calculate how much their cut will be was weird at first. Of course being extremely busy with actual business, I forgot, and got a letter with an 100k Euros invoice attached. Apparently they assumed 15 employees with 45k gross salary, and thought this is a fair trade union contribution! When I didn't respond to that, while discussing it with our lawyers, they sent a fine over this invoice which made it 140k. This is all within 3-4 months of registering mind you! At the end the lawyers handled that, but yeah, what the hell..
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 9mo ago
  > finding a representative of a trade union > how much their cut will be Did you have any employees yet? I guess so. Isn't it the employees' responsibility pay for their union membership?
  - f_devd 9mo ago
    > Isn't it the employees' responsibility pay for their union membership? No, contributions are handled by the employer/company
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
    - bgnn 9mo ago
      Individuals pay like 25-30 Euronth contribution, which is tax deductible. Employers can pay a lot, like 10% or more, which is often going to a social security fund.
- rambambram 9mo ago
  These trade unions are notorious for that. I worked as a labor legal advisor and especially the unions for temporary employment agency start 'barking' and demand loads of money (even from years back). Sometimes it's not even clear which union is applicable. You probably have all the info right now, but make sure everything is 'in line'. I mean, have your company codes at the tax authority match the applicable union match the actual things that your company does. Depending on the jobs of the employees, it might be smart to split the company into multiple legal entities. All in all you can be happy that this happened within a couple of months. Finding this out when you're years underway and then having to pay millions... I've seen plenty of these cases. Want to start a business in The Netherlands? Make sure to do a 'CAO check' first, think about how to structure your company (one entity? multiple entities? what job goes where?), and do these checks again once you pivot or make certain changes to the actual work that your company does. The rationale for this is also pretty simple: somebody got to pay for all this nice social security. They say it's part of the risk of being an entrepreneur.

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

layer8 9mo ago

> Personally I would not create "EU-INC" but just make all local entities legal in every country. That’s basically already the case. You can incorporate in one member state and offer your services in another member state. That’s part of what the EU assures. Still, there are many reasons why it doesn’t make sense for people to incorporate in any random member state.

peterspath 9mo ago

Same in the Netherlands for BV's. At least a few years ago, maybe it changed...

t0mas88 9mo ago
All of the heavy BV requirements changed in 2012. You can now start a BV very quickly, if you want you can do it online, and without any minimum capital requirement.

scirob 9mo ago

Looks like as per 2022 it is possible to register a GMBH in Germany fully online https://www.brak.de/newsroom/news/gmbh-und-ug-koennen-ab-1-august-2022-online-gegruendet-werden/ https://www.brak.de/newsroom/news/gmbh-und-ug-koennen-ab-1-a... also https://www.ihk.de/stuttgart/fuer-unternehmen/recht-und-steuern/gesellschaftsrecht-unternehmensformen/wahl-der-rechtsform-gesellschaftsrecht/gmbh/online-gruendung-gmbh-5536010 https://www.ihk.de/stuttgart/fuer-unternehmen/recht-und-steu... here are the online notaries: https://online.notar.de/ https://online.notar.de/ Firma.de estimates 6 weeks https://www.firma.de/en/company-formation/how-to-set-up-a-gmbh-the-definitive-guide-to-starting-a-limited-liability-company-in-germany/ https://www.firma.de/en/company-formation/how-to-set-up-a-gm... beglaubigt.de estimates 3 weeks https://beglaubigt.de/ug-gruenden https://beglaubigt.de/ug-gruenden Holvi estimates 4 weeks https://blog.holvi.com/de/gmbh-oder-ug-gr%C3%BCnden-2025-ablauf-kosten https://blog.holvi.com/de/gmbh-oder-ug-gr%C3%BCnden-2025-abl...

prasoon2211 9mo ago
I founded a UG and a GmbH in 2024. It took me 3 months total including visits to the notary (who charges a non-insignificant sum for their services). I did this as a subsidiary for a US company and literally had to email and call people every few days to move the process along (mostly, it was the banks who somehow expected us to be a multi-national company and wanted to charge an arm and a leg just to let us open a bank account. Most banks outright refused us). When the notary finally filed the paperwork to the court, the court replied after a few weeks with additional clarifications for which we had to go AGAIN to the notary to do the whole song and dance of them chanting at us in German at 1000 words per minute. Everything took painfully long and delayed investment for while. People have absolutely no idea how painful it is to merely have the incorporated entity available. Then, it takes a few weeks to get your tax ID - this is when you can start employing people / accepting payments etc.
- woodson 9mo ago
  The bank issues/refusals may have something to do with FATCA. If you have anything to do with the US in terms of taxes, many EU banks don’t want you as their customer. If it’s a subsidiary of a foreign company, then a lot of paperwork is required to prove that the foreign owners actually exist.

usrnm 9mo ago

> you have to physically go to the notary and have a person READ OUT all the statutes to you. I guess, you've never bought a house in the Netherlands then, because it's the same exact process

hexbin010 9mo ago
That is beyond hilarious lol. Finally found something the UK does better than the Netherlands ;)
- dark-star 9mo ago
  I never understood why people focus on this "reading aloud" so much. It's not so much about the reading out loud, it's about making sure you understand (so that you cannot later claim "but I didn't know about this, nobody explained it to me properly")
  - zdragnar 9mo ago
    What does reading it aloud make a difference to you reading it yourself? You can still claim that they misspoke or had an accent and you misheard or any of a dozen other excuses. The whole point of a contract is you sign your name to the words on the paper, and you are attesting that the words therein are correct and what you agree to.
apexalpha 9mo ago
I am living in my second house I bought and they absolutely did not. They just confirmed I was buying a house for X. They did not read the whole thing.
- Kiala 9mo ago
  A reading is mandatory (art. 43 WNA), but a party may opt for a limited reading if it declares that it has read and understood the content.

bmicraft 9mo ago

> Personally I would not create "EU-INC" but just make all local entities legal in every country. Then countries could compete to be the best system to attract companies and entrepreneurs. Like the current downward spiral of US states competing who can have the lowest corporate tax while letting their infrastructure crumble? But hey, that's a long term thing and we don't think about those. Only which companies move to my state in the next year/quarter/month.

AlanYx 9mo ago

I'm surprised that Germany never relaxed the in-person notarization requirements during COVID. A lot of jurisdictions around the world did change their rules to allow remote notarization.

martin_a 9mo ago
They did. This can be done online since August 2022.
- AlanYx 9mo ago
  Interesting, thanks! Apparently it requires a German eID-enabled ID card (or compatible EU ID) and doesn't include transactions involving real estate, but still it's progress.
  - lima 9mo ago
    The German eID system had a bad start but it works fine now.

Fraaaank 9mo ago

It's the same in the Netherlands. There is European legislation since 2024 that allows 'digital' notaries (Directive 2019/1151). Not many notaries support it though.

t0mas88 9mo ago
In the Netherlands it's much simpler. The notary only has to identify you for their record keeping, no mandatory reading of things etc. And once identified for something you can easily authorise the notary to sign other things on your behalf as well. We did that all the time when for example adding new entities to a group structure. Just e-sign the authorisation and that's all.

tchalla 9mo ago

If only it were that. You have to put up 25000€ in capital and pay absurd amount of fees to the notary for essentially being a text to speech translator.

lima 9mo ago
The minimum capital requirement is the whole point of a GmbH. If you don't want it, you can found a UG, which is the same thing with no capital requirement.
- apexalpha 9mo ago
  If both are the same what’s the point of having 2?
  - wasmitnetzen 9mo ago
    Trustworthiness. You know a GmbH has at least 25000€ you can sue them for. And a UG has to put parts of their profits into becoming a GmbH, so eventually everyone big enough is a GmbH.

yencabulator 9mo ago

In USA, I had to get paperwork notarized to have the local water utility open an account for me.

lima 9mo ago

Not anymore, Germany has a streamlined online notarization process for creating a simple GmbH now. I've recently managed to get everything done in <1 week, including bank account. Progress!