The World Desk Floor 3 · Europe

Room 302

Germany

Willkommen. How may I help you?

Notary, commercial register, tax office and customs, in that order.

Capital
Berlin
Currency
Euro (EUR)
Guide
Overview · full guide in preparation
Last checked
Berlin Hamburg Frankfurt Munich

The concierge

What do you need in Germany?

01 · Set up

Ways to be present

Registry: Commercial register (Handelsregister) at the local court, filed by a notary.

GmbH

The standard limited company.

  • Share capital at least €25,000; half (€12,500) paid in before registration
  • Articles notarised; a standard one-founder template (Musterprotokoll) is quicker, and online notarisation is possible for standard formations
  • Founders are personally liable until registration

UG (haftungsbeschränkt)

Founders starting with little capital.

  • Capital from €1; part of each year’s profit must be retained until €25,000 is built up

Branch (Zweigniederlassung)

A foreign company operating as itself.

  • Registered in the commercial register

01 · Set up

First registrations

  1. 01

    Notary and register

    Notarised articles → bank account and capital deposit → notary files with the commercial register.

  2. 02

    Transparency register

    Record beneficial owners (25% or more).

  3. 03

    Trade office and tax office

    Trade registration (Gewerbeanmeldung); tax registration questionnaire through ELSTER within about a month of starting, giving the tax number and VAT ID.

02 · Trade

Moving goods

  1. 01

    Apply for an EORI number; from 1 October 2026 only through the customs portal (Zoll-Portal), which needs the company’s ELSTER login

  2. 02

    Classify goods under the EU tariff (TARIC); declare imports in ATLAS, usually through a customs agent

  3. 03

    Import VAT (19% or 7%) is due on import and recoverable for VAT-registered businesses

03 · Close

Done when

Watch

  • Non-EU documents for the notary usually need apostille and sworn German translation — plan for it early

Sources

Checked against

  • German customs: EORI questions and answers zoll.de
  • Plus each authority’s own portal. Several points come from practitioner reports; where they disagreed, the text above says so.