Corporate Founder
The founder of a corporation is either a physical or a juristic person. The law requires that the founder must identify himself. For natural persons, like you and me, this is no issue. You just produce your ID or passport with address registration slip from Germany or equivalent proof from abroad. Foreigners living in Germany can easily use their electronic residence title.
If a company wants to found a subsidiary, then this requires more attention! The company needs to identify itself as well. Working across at least over two jurisdictions is a bit demanding. Since the German commercial registry is authoritative with the details published, the registry is pretty picky on the exactness of details. They want every single detail proven and that in German. In contrary to other jurisdictions, the commercial registry publishes binding information that enjoys public trust.
The requirements for this proof are easiest within the EU, and for countries of the former "Commonwealth", we have developed a pragmatic solution. The rest of the world is the most difficult. For this reason, our fees are staggered, starting at €50 for EU Member States, €150 for countries such as the UK, India, Australia, New Zealand, and €300 for the rest of the world. For UK company founders, we have developed an Express Service for an additional €450 with UK colleagues, so you can have your UK company proven within three business days. To order this Express Service, please click this sentence.
Our services in this regard will be to help you prove the existence of your company and its legal representatives. You are to produce an official certificates on its existence and its directors. If this document is not also in German, then it will have to be translated by a certified translator for German courts. We will gladly organize a certified interpreter for you here in Germany.
Final and last consideration is the Transparency Register. If the ultimate beneficial owner is not yet otherwise registered in Germany, the ultimate beneficial owner must be entered into the Transparency Register. When your company hires us, we will take care of this in due time. Registration in the Transparency has nothing to do with bringing your German subsidiary into existence. Understand as the last beneficial owner, the final natural persons holding the shares of a company holding the shares of another company. When applying for a bank account, the bank will also want to understand who the ultimate beneficial owner is. We take for this service € 200 flat.
Our fees in an overview:
- Europe: € 90
- Commonwealth countries: € 200; Express Service for UK Limiteds
- rest of the world: € 450
- Transparency registry: € 200