Setting up a business, handling tax obligations and finding legal support in Germany. Compare services built for founders, freelancers and internationals.
Company formation and business setup services with English-language support and digital processes.
Digital company formation and notary services
Business accounts suited to founders, freelancers and small companies operating in Germany.
Business banking built for founders and freelancers
Business accounts for founders and freelancers
Filing your tax return, whether employed, freelance or running a company.
Compare English-friendly tax filing apps
The official German tax portal
This page covers three fairly different situations, and most people need only one of them. If you are employed and want to file a return, tax software handles it and you can skip everything else. If you are freelancing or forming a company, you are in different territory and the stakes are higher.
The dividing line is roughly this: an app is sufficient for an ordinary employee return. A tax advisor becomes worth the cost once you have business income, VAT obligations, or income across more than one country.
Germany has two common company forms for small businesses. The GmbH requires €25,000 of share capital, of which at least €12,500 must be paid in at formation. The UG, sometimes called a mini-GmbH, can be founded with as little as €1 but must retain a quarter of its annual profit until it reaches GmbH-level capital.
Both require notarisation, which is a genuine bottleneck. The notary appointment, the commercial register entry and the trade office registration all happen in sequence, and the whole process traditionally takes several weeks. Digital formation services compress this considerably by handling the paperwork and offering online notary appointments, though the notary fees themselves remain payable either way.
Freelancers, Freiberufler, avoid all of this. There is no company to form and no share capital, just a registration with the tax office. Whether you qualify as a freelancer rather than a trader depends on your profession and is decided by the Finanzamt, not by you.
German administrative processes ask for certified copies and certified translations far more often than most newcomers expect, and the certification is usually the slow part rather than the document itself.
A translation certified in your home country is frequently rejected, because many German authorities require a translator sworn in Germany specifically. Check the requirement before paying, since having a translation done twice is common and avoidable.
Some situations genuinely require a qualified German tax advisor rather than an app or a DIY approach:
The content on this page is general information only and is not individual legal or tax advice. Check provider terms and seek qualified professional advice where appropriate.
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