Posted by earcar 12 hours ago
In Canada you can easily and quickly obtain a GST number online. Furthermore, if you're self-employed or a small business owner, with a revenue of $30,000 or less, you are classified as a "small supplier", and don't have register and charge/collect GST.
For someone just starting out who will not be a small supplier, I believe the small supplier designation still provides a buffer zone. You can start invoicing immediately and sort out your registration later.
Maybe OP was just not advised well which is surprising given the amount of information available online (startup guides for Germany)
You can totally setup a Inc or LLC equivalent pretty fast in Germany as long as you stick to the standard. What he is setting up is basically an LLC owning an Inc.
But if you think founding a german company is difficult, wait until have you do an ordered liquidation (not bankruptcy) - that is madness on its own.
Without this "exit tax", every founder of a successful business would have a huge incentive to leave and to realize the gains elsewhere. It's not a tax for the privilige of leaving, but for the privilege of building a company. I can see only three alternatives to this:
- Abolish the capital gains tax entirely.
- Make defering it impossible. Force people to pay immidiately. No "exit tax", but people have to pay for unrealized gains.
- Tax people when they realize their gains in a foreign country.
If you want to move out of Europe, you get the exit tax as before.
Now you understand why the USA deploys 3-4x the amount of VC capital compared to the EU. And prior to the current administration, entrepreneurs mostly wanted to get to the US.
But I know for a fact that these ratings are pure crap. I asked them to fix the entry for Belgium once, and they replied that they trust the officials providing the info even though I sent the references to the legislation.
Typically, you can spend your "Stammkapital" for business purposes (e.g. in a GmbH). It doesn't need to stay in your bank account.
It's a common misunderstanding that this money needs to be reserved somewhere for liability purposes. That's not correct. You can spend it, both in a GmbH as well as in a UG. Look it up youself (e.g. https://www.anwalt.de/rechtstipps/stammkapital-muss-ich-das-...)
And the EU knows, hopefully it will improve the situation: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/03/18/48-hours-and-1...
You shouldn't need a consultant to open a company. Should be a form and that's it. Maybe an accountant to certify your books, but that's it.
To me things taking longer and being more complicated sounds entirely reasonable and natural in such setup...
Under some circumstances you can be held liable through a GmbH, but not generally speaking.
> rejecting the option with VAT number
Means you are planning to run a small business (making less than minimum wage on a yearly basis), also you are opting out of Vorsteuerabzug. Anyone that wants to live off their business needs VAT. And that is given by Bundeszentralamt für Steuern and the wait times are often excruciating.