We start your German GmbH from abroad and hand you what a real company needs to operate: a company number, tax & VAT IDs, an EORI number and a court-valid address. We prepare and coordinate the banking route; the account decision stays with the bank. start local. THINK GLOBAL.
Ten questions, one clear breakdown — statutory fees, our fee, and what runs monthly. No email required to see the price.
Open the quote calculatorA consultation is easy to promise. We deliver the tangible building blocks that let your company actually trade in Germany and the EU.
Your company entered in the Handelsregister (commercial register) at the registry court, with its official registration number.
Registration with the Finanzamt for your tax number, plus a VAT identification number (USt-IdNr.) for trading across the EU.
Guided setup of a real German business account, including options that work for non-resident founders.
The number customs uses to identify your company. Without it no declaration can be lodged and nothing clears. The authority issues it free of charge; our fee is for making and following up the application.
A real, ladungsfähige Geschäftsadresse at our Reutlingen office, an address at which documents can actually be served, in a building you can walk into.
Our logistics partner runs a warehouse with fulfilment and its own customs warehouse, so your goods can sit under customs supervision until you actually need them.
Not the notary and not the commercial register. The bank. Plenty of German banks simply will not open a business account when the managing director holds no German residence permit and has no German address, and founders usually find this out after the company has been notarised and the share capital has nowhere to go. Until that capital is in a German account, the company cannot be registered at all.
Identification with your Indian passport, and no German residence permit required for the managing director. For most founders who stay in India this is the route that works. Every application remains subject to the bank’s own KYC check and onboarding decision, and bank policies change.
One appointment at the branch. Slower and it means a trip, but it gives you a local relationship manager, which pays off later for financing and card limits. We come with you to the appointment.
Often the smoothest path if you already bank with them at home. Your existing relationship and KYC history carry over, and you can talk to people in your own language on both sides.
Eight steps, in this order. Most delays are not caused by the authorities, they are caused by doing the steps in the wrong sequence. Two of them have to start on day one, which is why they come first here and not in the middle.
Thirty minutes. What the company is for, who the shareholders are, where they live, and whether anyone needs to come to Germany. You get a written summary afterwards.
Legal form, shareholders, managing director. And the document chain starts now: certification, state attestation and apostille take two to four weeks from India, so they run in parallel with everything else rather than at the end.
The IHK gives an opinion on whether your intended company name and purpose can be registered. Usually free, and it prevents drafting everything twice.
This is where remote formations stall, so we settle it first. Direct bank, local branch bank or an Indian bank with a Frankfurt branch, depending on your shareholders. We prepare the file and come to the appointment.
Our notary usually holds the appointment in English and draws the documents in German and English, so in most cases no interpreter and no sworn translation of the deed are needed. Whether that works is the notary’s decision in each case. Where a power of attorney is accepted, you do not need to fly in.
The share capital is paid in, the notary files, the court registers the company. From that moment the GmbH exists as such and the personal liability of the formation phase ends.
A tax adviser files the Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung; you receive the tax number and, on request, the VAT identification number. The EORI number follows if goods will cross a border.
Court-valid address, post received and scanned, rooms you can actually use, and someone reachable in German office hours. This is the part that continues after the formation is finished.
Providers in this market are often vague about the second half. We would rather you knew before you engaged us than afterwards.
We say this early, because founders are sometimes sold the opposite, and both surprises are expensive when they arrive after the notary rather than before.
Registering a GmbH does not give you the right to live in Germany. A residence permit for self-employment under § 21 AufenthG has its own test: there must be an economic interest or a regional need, the business must be expected to have positive effects on the economy, and the financing must be secured by equity or a committed loan.
The immigration office does not decide that alone. It has to obtain opinions from the competent expert bodies, in practice the chamber of commerce, as well as the trade authority and, for regulated professions, the admitting body. What they weigh is the viability of the business idea, your entrepreneurial experience, the capital you put in, the effect on employment and training, and any contribution to innovation.
So the document that decides your visa is a business plan that survives a chamber of commerce review, not a company number. The permit runs for a maximum of three years; a settlement permit can follow if the business has actually worked. Trading revenue or a signed customer contract moves this more than anything else you can write.
The tax office issues your tax number and VAT ID, and it has become markedly more careful: VAT fraud runs through letterbox companies, and the Federal Central Tax Office cross-checks address data before issuing a VAT ID.
Two things get a file rejected or quietly parked. First, an address used only as a mailbox, no rooms in regular use, no staff, no infrastructure. That can cause problems where the tax office has to establish where the company is actually based or managed. Second, no evidence that the company actually does anything: no customer order, no contract, no invoices. Without a tax number you cannot invoice properly, and without a VAT ID you cannot trade inside the EU.
There is a third variant that catches people out. Some tax offices hand the file to a central office because they are not satisfied that the company is actually managed in Germany, when the managing director holds no residence permit and is not here, they question whether the place of management sits in Germany at all. Under § 10 AO that is where the central management of the business is exercised, and it determines which office is competent and how long everything takes. Another reason why demonstrable German substance is worth more than it looks: an address you genuinely use, someone on the ground, decisions and meetings that actually happen here. Your tax adviser should be told about this before the questionnaire goes in, not after.
This is why our address is not a letterbox. Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 33 is an office you can walk into, with rooms you can book and genuinely use and a person on site who receives your post and your visitors. When the tax office asks, and increasingly it does, there is something real to show.
A GmbH is a limited-liability company: your personal liability is limited to the company's capital. It's the established, credible form that banks, partners and authorities take seriously, the right base for building in Germany. We guide you through every step in your free consultation.
A clear starting checklist, we confirm the exact list in your consultation:
With power of attorney and a real base on the ground, your German company can be formed, banked and ready to trade, calmly, legally and structurally, while you run it from anywhere in the world.
Yes. We work with non-resident and non-EU founders and, with power of attorney, handle the steps that require a presence in Germany on your behalf where permitted.
Typically 4–8 weeks, depending on your situation, how quickly documents are ready and how responsive the authorities and bank are. You get a realistic timeline in your free consultation.
Yes, with the right bank, but not with every bank, and this is where most foreign-founded companies stall. Three routes work in practice: a direct bank that works with Indian passports for identification and does not require the managing director to hold a German residence permit; a local German bank, which means one appointment in person at the branch and which we attend with you; or an Indian bank with a branch in Frankfurt, which is often smoothest if you already bank with them at home. We tell you in the first call which route applies to you.
Because the company cannot be entered in the commercial register until the share capital has been paid in and is at the managing directors' free disposal, for a GmbH at least half of the registered capital. The law does not name a German account, but notaries and registry courts expect one in practice. If no bank opens an account, the formation stops there. That is why we settle the banking route before the notary appointment rather than after.
Yes. We register you for a tax number and a VAT identification number (USt-IdNr.), and, if your company moves goods across the EU border, we apply for your EORI number as a €250 add-on. The two do different jobs and are often confused: the VAT ID is what you need for trade inside the EU, the EORI number is what customs needs for trade with countries outside it, so for goods coming from India, the EORI is the one that matters.
EORI stands for Economic Operators Registration and Identification. It is the number customs uses to identify your company, and you cannot lodge a customs declaration without one, so nothing arrives from India until it exists. In Germany it is issued by the Generalzolldirektion in Dresden, applied for through the customs portal, and it is free of charge. One number per legal entity, valid across the whole EU. The authority charges nothing; if you want us to make and follow up the application, that is a € 250 add-on. Apply before your first shipment leaves, not when the container is at the port.
No. A residence permit for self-employment under § 21 AufenthG is a separate test: an economic interest or regional need, expected positive effects on the economy, and secured financing. The immigration office must obtain opinions from the chamber of commerce and the trade authority, which assess the viability of the business idea, your entrepreneurial experience, the capital invested and the effect on employment. What decides it is a business plan that survives a chamber of commerce review, better still, real revenue or a signed customer contract. The commercial register entry matters, but it does not replace the assessment under § 21 AufenthG.
It can refuse, or simply not process the file. Two things cause it: an address used only as a mailbox, with no rooms in regular use and nobody on site, which can make it hard for the tax office to establish where the company is actually based or managed; and a company that cannot show any actual trade, no customer order, no contract, no invoices. VAT fraud runs through letterbox companies, so the checks have tightened.
Yes. Once the articles are notarised a company in formation exists, a Vor-GmbH, which can hold an account, sign contracts and receive money. But § 11(2) GmbHG provides that whoever acts in the company's name before registration is personally and jointly liable, with everything they own and not merely up to the share capital. Before registration the GmbH does not yet exist as a legal entity, and that is the reason for the personal liability. What happens to it once the company is registered is a question for a lawyer. You must also trade as "GmbH i. G.", and if the company's net assets at registration are worth less than the share capital the shareholders owe the difference. Small steps in that window are normal, a large contract is a different decision. Ask us before you sign.
Usually not. Our notary speaks English and normally holds the notarisation in English, so in most cases no interpreter is needed. Whether an interpreter is required is the notary’s decision in each case. We're a multilingual team too (English plus many Indian languages), and our partners speak English.
Usually yes. Our English-speaking notary draws the formation documents bilingually in German and English and reads them out in English at the appointment, so you know what you are signing. Whether an interpreter or a separate sworn translation is needed remains the notary’s decision in each case.
Yes. We work with a logistics partner that runs a warehouse with fulfilment and, importantly, its own customs warehouse (Zolllager). Goods shipped from India can be stored there under customs supervision, which means import duty and import VAT are not payable while they sit in the warehouse, only when the goods are released into free circulation. If you re-export them outside the EU, no EU import duty arises at all. For a first container into Europe that is a real cashflow difference: you pay duty on what you actually sell, not on everything you shipped. Ask us about your goods and volumes.
Every situation is different, so we don't sell fixed packages off the shelf. Tell us your goal in a free consultation and you'll get a clear, tailored offer, no surprises.
Free, no-obligation. Tell us where you're based and what you want to set up, and we'll map your next step.