How long did it take you from start to finish?
In Australia, Canada and the US I can open a company in about 30 minutes from picking the name to opening a bank account I can get money into.
In Germany the last time I tried it was about 7 weeks.
In Australia, Canada and the US I can open a company in about 30 minutes from picking the name to opening a bank account I can get money into.
In Germany the last time I tried it was about 7 weeks.
If you want to found a limited liability company (i.e. GmbH) you also can start with picking a name and opening a bank. Add "i.G." to your company's name (i.e. GmbH i.G.) and start doing business.
Both approaches require you to register your business somewhere down the line, foremost for tax reasons. And yes, this can take quite some time, I had one occasion where we waited for 16 weeks after filing, but did business all the time. Note that some services are unavailable to you as long as your company is not formally registered, e.g. insurance.
If you are in a real hurry and need a running limited liability company, just buy one. Better tax advisors usually have a few "empty" GmbH in their files they sell you for the price of capital stock plus some handling fees. This gives you all required IDs immediately and you just have to transfer the bank account and, if you want to, change the name. Depending on the availability of a notary, this can be done in a few hours but usually takes a few days. One additional advantage of buying a shell is that you get history, which makes a lot of things easier.
IMHO, the British approach is more pragmatic: Why would you not make it as simple as possible to incorporate and run a company?
Ultimately the state should make it as cheap and straightforward as possible, get out of the way basically, and let people get on with it. It's difficult to find a reason to do differently
And that the "easy" part (as we know that it could be done as quickly as in 30 minutes) takes forever does not speak well of the UX of managing a business on that country, because e.g. closing a business, which is by nature more complicated, could end up being a hellish ordeal.