Comment by allendoerfer
2 years ago
I will play devil's advocate and defend some parts of the German system. Although my actual personal opinion of some of those institutions may vary, I will try very hard to keep this simple and just take the opposing side.
- IHK: Not bad, see German apprenticeship system
- GEZ: Not bad, see American media landscape (e.g. Fox News vs. CNN)
- Paying 25.000 € for your own GmbH shares: (1) These are not shares. (2) There are other options. (3) Your company keeps the money, you are not paying anyone. (4) It is only 12500 € up front, you can guarantee for the other 12500 € (5) You get rid of personal liability, so it is fair for everyone to know, there is at least some money within the newly created entitiy.
- Notary, having registers with names etc.: Not bad, see tax havens
- (Seemlingly) not having to pay taxes when your company is sold by a holding company: It is not the same thing. While a holding company selling shares is taxed a miniscule amount, it is actually taxed as soon as the money is paid out to you personally, making you effectively pay more taxes overall in addition to the operating costs of the holding company. The holding gets the benefit of being able to reinvest the gross amounts.
The holding allows you to defer paying the taxes on the sale of the startup as part of an investment round to simply restructure the company. You don’t have to pay taxes now on gains that aren’t liquid, and if the startup goes bust u just count the losses against the gains and u get zero tax burden.