Fiscal aspects
Your interaction with the fiscal office depends in large part on how you plan to conduct your activities on the German market. If, for instance, you decide to limit your presence here to an entirely “virtual” registered office, this usually has no fiscal consequences.
At a certain point, you may choose to strengthen your presence on the German market by making use of the structure that ALTEA provides you with.
This allows you to interact with your German customers much more directly while not automatically incurring any fiscal disadvantages.
If, however, your revenue becomes subject to taxation in Germany, the corporation tax amounts to 15%; the trade tax approximates 15%.
In Germany, there are many possibilities to claim emerging costs as decreasing the profit. Therefore, in many cases it is effectively irrelevant whether you pay duty on your revenue in your country or in Germany.
Further costs
Depending on the extent of business activities that you carry out in Germany, you may face further costs, about which we aim to briefly inform you.
If your activity exceeds certain dimensions (e.g. more than one employee or warehouse, etc.), your German firm has to be registered with the Chamber of Commerce in Germany. The annual registration fee is based on the turnover achieved in Germany, and amounts to at least € 100,00.
If you wish to found a company according to German law, not only the costs for registering with the Chamber of Commerce, but also for the act of foundation, are incurred. These costs range from € 3.000,00 to € 5.000,00, depending on the nominal capital of the association.
In every case, your activities have to be registered with the respective municipality, in this case with the City of Cologne. This incurs costs of approximately € 50.
If your activities become subject to taxation in Germany, you have to submit a balance sheet to the local fiscal office. The costs of such a balance sheet depend on the turnover generated and usually range between € 1.500,00 and € 5.000,00.