- →
-
Contact Form
-
ShelfCompanies24 has formed German corporate entities for international clients since 1995. We handle every step of the company formation in Germany process — from choosing the right legal form through to your first Handelsregister extract and active VAT number — on a single fixed-fee contract. No hourly notary bills, no surprise Finanzamt filings, no piecemeal invoicing.
No hidden fees. A single payment covers notary, Handelsregister, Stammkapital-account opening, tax registration and our service fee.
Company formation plus virtual office plus banking plus a curated Steuerberater introduction — under one roof.
Fast-track notarization, proactive status updates and a dedicated German-speaking case manager.
Since 1 August 2022, GmbHs can be formed online via video-notarization. No travel required for most clients.
We draft the Gesellschaftsvertrag, coordinate the Notar, chase the Handelsregister court and deliver the finished file to your inbox.
Pick the legal form that matches your capital, your ownership structure and your liability tolerance. The three workhorses are the GmbH, the UG (haftungsbeschränkt) and — for listed or capital-raising projects — the AG.
The GmbH is Germany’s default limited-liability company and represents more than 90% of newly incorporated corporate entities every year. It’s governed by the GmbH-Gesetz (GmbHG) and supervised through the Handelsregister.
Introduced in 2008 to compete with the UK Ltd, the UG offers the full liability shield of a GmbH at a fraction of the capital requirement.
The German joint-stock company, governed by the Aktiengesetz (AktG). Minimum share capital is €50,000. The AG has a mandatory two-tier board — Vorstand (management board) plus Aufsichtsrat (supervisory board) — and suits groups planning a stock-exchange listing, wide share dispersion or sophisticated class-of-share arrangements.
Partnerships are still widely used in Germany for family businesses, real-estate holdings and professional services. The GmbH & Co. KG is particularly popular: it combines the tax-transparent character of a limited partnership (KG) with an incorporated general partner (the GmbH), delivering both asset protection and partnership taxation.
| Form | Min. capital | Formation time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| GmbH | €25,000 (≥ €12,500 paid up) | 3–6 weeks | SMEs, subsidiaries, holdings |
| UG (haftungsbeschränkt) | €1 | 2–4 weeks | Start-ups, low-capital ventures |
| AG | €50,000 | 6–10 weeks | Listed groups, PE-backed projects |
| GmbH & Co. KG | €25,000 (GmbH) + KG capital | 4–8 weeks | Family holdings, real estate |
Forming a new German GmbH or UG is a structured process. Our team runs it in parallel threads to compress the timeline wherever the Handelsregister court allows.
A 30-minute consultation to confirm the legal form, the shareholder structure, the intended business purpose (Unternehmensgegenstand) and the registered office municipality. We also clarify Stammkapital, banking preferences and any residency-permit downstream needs.
The proposed company name is pre-screened with the local Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammer / IHK) to confirm it is distinguishable, not misleading, and compatible with the business purpose. This avoids the Handelsregister court rejecting the name after the Notar has already drafted the deed.
We draft the Articles of Association (Gesellschaftsvertrag) in bilingual German-English form. Single-shareholder GmbHs can use the statutory Musterprotokoll (short-form template), which is slightly cheaper. Multi-shareholder or non-standard structures use a tailored long-form Satzung.
All corporate acts — formation, appointment of directors, transfer of shares, amendment of articles — must be notarised by a German Notar. This is the single most important peculiarity of German corporate law. Since 1 August 2022, the notarization can take place through the online video-authentication platform operated by the Federal Chamber of Notaries (Bundesnotarkammer), so founders can sign from anywhere in the world.
Once the deed is notarised, the Geschäftsführer opens a business account with a German bank and deposits the required share capital (≥ €12,500 for a GmbH, ≥ €1 for a UG). The bank issues a Einzahlungsbestätigung (deposit confirmation) that the Notar forwards to the Handelsregister.
The Notar electronically submits the registration package — articles, directors’ declarations, shareholder list, proof of capital — to the Amtsgericht (district court) that hosts the local Handelsregister. Registration fees are typically around €150 for a standard GmbH or UG. Processing times:
Within four weeks of Handelsregister entry, the Finanzamt sends a tax questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung). We complete it to obtain:
All beneficial owners holding > 25% must be filed to the Transparenzregister within days of Handelsregister entry. We handle the filing and the annual refresh.
The Stammkapital account converts into a regular operating account. We help you open supplementary accounts with challenger banks (Fyrst, Kontist, Qonto, Finom) for faster onboarding and better digital tooling.
| Scenario | Typical duration |
|---|---|
| Single-shareholder GmbH using Musterprotokoll | 2–4 weeks |
| Multi-shareholder GmbH, tailored articles | 3–6 weeks |
| UG (haftungsbeschränkt) | 2–4 weeks |
| AG with single founder | 6–10 weeks |
| Ready-made GmbH (shelf company) transfer instead of new formation | 3–7 working days |
Our all-in German GmbH formation package is typically in the range of €2,500–€4,000 depending on shareholder count and options. For comparison, the line-items if you sourced the service yourself would be:
| Line item | Typical cost (EUR) |
|---|---|
| Notary fees — single-shareholder GmbH (Musterprotokoll) | €300 – €500 |
| Notary fees — multi-shareholder, tailored articles | €800 – €1,500 |
| Handelsregister court fee | €150 |
| IHK publication fee | €20 – €50 |
| Apostille and certified translation (for non-EU founders) | €100 – €400 |
| First-year virtual office + registered address | €300 – €1,200 |
| Bank account opening support | €0 – €500 |
| Transparenzregister filing | €50 – €150 |
| Steuerberater — monthly dormant or micro-SME package | €75 – €250 / month |
The Gesetz zur Umsetzung der Digitalisierungsrichtlinie (DiRUG) came into force on 1 August 2022. It authorises German notaries to conduct online formation of a GmbH or UG through a dedicated video-authentication platform run by the Bundesnotarkammer. Since then we have incorporated hundreds of entities without the founders ever boarding a flight.
Practical requirements for online notarization:
In-kind contributions (Sacheinlagen) and certain AG formations still require physical notary attendance.
If you can wait 3–6 weeks and want to pick your own company name, proceed with a fresh formation. If you need to sign a contract, take delivery of inventory or respond to a German tender this week, a ready-made Vorratsgesellschaft is the right tool — the Handelsregister entry already exists, the Stammkapital is already paid in, and you can change the name and business purpose post-transfer.
A standard single-shareholder GmbH set up through our online notarization track is typically Handelsregister-registered within 2–4 weeks. Multi-shareholder structures, AGs and scenarios requiring in-kind capital contributions run 4–8 weeks. If you need speed, a ready-made Vorratsgesellschaft delivers the same legal outcome in 3–7 working days.
The statutory minimum share capital for a GmbH in Germany is €25,000, of which at least €12,500 must be paid in cash at formation. The remaining €12,500 can be called up by the Gesellschafterversammlung within five years. The UG (haftungsbeschränkt) alternative requires only €1 of share capital, with a mandatory 25% profit-retention obligation until the reserve reaches €25,000.
No. There is no residency requirement for shareholders (Gesellschafter) or managing directors (Geschäftsführer). Non-EU founders simply need to complete enhanced KYC with the Notar and the bank. German banks occasionally prefer at least one EU-resident director for SEPA operational reasons, but this is a bank policy rather than a legal obligation.
Since 2022 online-formed GmbHs have the same legal status as offline-formed ones. All major German banks — Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, HypoVereinsbank, the Sparkassen network, Volksbanken, ING-DiBa — accept them without distinction. A small number of legacy banking back-offices still ask for a paper original of the Handelsregister extract; we supply that automatically.
The Musterprotokoll is a statutory short-form articles template permitted for GmbHs and UGs with up to three shareholders and exactly one managing director. It reduces notary fees by roughly €200–€400. The trade-off is less flexibility: no special classes of shares, no anti-dilution or transfer restrictions. For single-founder bootstrapping it’s fine; for anything involving investors we recommend bespoke articles.
In 2026 the combined effective corporate tax rate averages around 30%: Körperschaftsteuer 15% + Solidaritätszuschlag 0.825% + Gewerbesteuer 7–32% depending on municipal Hebesatz. The Standortförderungsgesetz announced in 2025 will lower the Körperschaftsteuer rate by one percentage point per year from 2028, reaching 10% in 2032. VAT (Umsatzsteuer) is 19% standard / 7% reduced.
Yes. Many of our clients run their German GmbHs from abroad through an EU-registered Geschäftsführer and a virtual office or serviced address in Germany. Tax residency of the company, however, follows the place of effective management — so if the Geschäftsführer genuinely operates from another country, double-tax-treaty analysis may be needed. We discuss this during the strategy call.
The company is immediately legally capable of contracting. Within four weeks the Finanzamt will send its tax questionnaire; we complete it to obtain the Steuernummer and USt-IdNr. We also file the Transparenzregister disclosure, activate the main bank account and introduce you to a Steuerberater for ongoing accounting. Most clients are fully operational within six weeks of formation.
Ready to start the German company formation process? Contact our German desk for a fixed-price proposal covering every step from notary to Finanzamt.