Choice of corporate form

Do you want to start a business, or are you already running a business and considering a change of legal form?

There is no patent recipe to provide a tailor-made legal entity. In the choice of legal entity, criteria to consider include financial, tax, company law and, especially, legal liability issues.

We can initially assist in the following questions:

• Do you want to be a sole trader or work with partners?
• Is the enterprise risky? Should you therefore be limiting your personal liability?
• Do you attach particular importance to the name of the firm and the “standing” of your company?
• Is the legal status appropriate to the size of the firm?

The following legal entities are available:

• Sole trader
• Company under civil law (German: BGB-Gesellschaft, Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts)
• Partnership (including independent professions)
• Registered trader (German: eingetragener Kaufmann)
• Ordinary partnership (German: Offene Handelsgesellschaft)
• Limited partnership (German: Kommanditgesellschaft)
• Company with limited liability (German: GmbH), including non-profit companies (German: gGmbH)
• Limited partnership where the sole general partner is a limited liability company  (GmbH & Co. KG); Limited partnership where the sole general partner is an entrepreneurial company (UG & Co.KG); Limited partnership where the sole general partner is an English limited company (Ltd. & Co. KG)
• Public company (German: Aktiengesellschaft)
• Partnership limited by shares (German: Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien)
• English limited company
• Entrepreneurial company with limited liability (German: Unternehmergesellschaft (haftungsbeschränkt))

As well as (with limitations):

• Associations
• Foundations