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Register a busi­ness in Ber­lin — here’s how!

Register as a busi­ness: Step by step

Table of con­tents

Berlin Business registration

Why register a busi­ness?

A busi­ness must be registered for sev­eral legal and organ­isa­tional reas­ons:

  1. Legal basis: In Ger­many, busi­ness regis­tra­tion is required by law. Any­one who takes up a com­mer­cial activ­ity is obliged to register it with the rel­ev­ant author­it­ies in accord­ance with the Trade, Com­merce and Industry Reg­u­la­tion Act (GewO). This serves to mon­itor eco­nomic activ­it­ies and ensure that they take place within the frame­work of the applic­able laws.
  2. Tax record­ingBusi­ness regis­tra­tion also informs the tax office and other author­it­ies. The tax office requires this inform­a­tion in order to register the trader for tax pur­poses and to levy the cor­res­pond­ing taxes (e.g. trade tax). Without regis­tra­tion, the tax regis­tra­tion and tax­a­tion of income could not be car­ried out cor­rectly.
  3. Social secur­ityTrades­people can also be included in social secur­ity sys­tems, such as pen­sion or health insur­ance, if these are man­dat­ory for the respect­ive entre­pren­eur.
  4. Author­isa­tion for cer­tain activ­it­iesRegis­tra­tion is a pre­requis­ite for obtain­ing a busi­ness licence in some sec­tors, such as prop­erty trad­ing or the secur­ity industry. Cer­tain activ­it­ies may only be car­ried out with a cor­res­pond­ing licence, which is linked to regis­tra­tion.
  5. Trans­par­ency and con­sumer pro­tec­tionBusi­ness regis­tra­tion cre­ates trans­par­ency about busi­ness activ­it­ies and pro­tects con­sumers. It ensures that busi­nesses are offi­cially registered and there­fore easier to check.

Who has to register com­mer­cially and what is required

Any­one intend­ing to become self-employed or start a busi­ness activ­ity in a com­pany must register a trade at the begin­ning of their self-employ­ment. This applies, for example, to

  • Retailer
  • Ser­vice pro­vider
  • Oper­at­ors of online shops
  • Res­taur­at­eurs
  • Crafts­man

In the case of a cor­por­a­tion (e.g. GmbH or UG), the man­aging dir­ector registers the busi­ness.

Freel­an­cers are an excep­tion: If the planned activ­ity is clas­si­fied as a lib­eral pro­fes­sion, you do not need to register a busi­ness. You can find out whether your activ­ity is clas­si­fied as a lib­eral pro­fes­sion in the list of cata­logue pro­fes­sions in Sec­tion 18 EStG. Freel­an­cers do not have to register with the trade office, but with the tax office in order to start their self-employ­ment.

Hold­ing com­pan­ies, i.e. com­pan­ies with the cor­por­ate pur­pose of “man­aging their own assets”, are also exempt from the oblig­a­tion to register a busi­ness.

Doc­u­ments for busi­ness regis­tra­tion

A busi­ness regis­tra­tion can be com­pleted online in Ber­lin and in other fed­eral states at the rel­ev­ant trade office (this is usu­ally part of the cit­izens’ regis­tra­tion office or res­id­ents’ regis­tra­tion office) without an appoint­ment. How­ever, it is import­ant that you bring the neces­sary doc­u­ments with you to the regis­tra­tion.

You should have the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments ready for busi­ness regis­tra­tion:

  • For every­one: Iden­tity card or pass­port together with a regis­tra­tion cer­ti­fic­ate, as well as a valid credit card for the pay­ment of the fee of 15 euros
  • Für GmbH und andere Kapit­al­gesell­schaften oder oHG: An extract from the com­mer­cial register
  • For for­eign founders: A valid res­id­ence per­mit

Cer­tain pro­fes­sional groups must also sub­mit addi­tional doc­u­ments in order to suc­cess­fully register the trade. In spe­cial cases, such as indus­tries that require mon­it­or­ing or trades that require a spe­cial licence, addi­tional require­ments must be met. A busi­ness licence in accord­ance with § 34c of the Trade, Com­merce and Industry Reg­u­la­tion Act (GewO) is required par­tic­u­larly fre­quently.

Busi­ness regis­tra­tion step by step

As in other art­icles, we have taken screen­shots to help you with the busi­ness regis­tra­tion step by step:

1. go to the web­site of the Ber­lin admin­is­tra­tion

Registering a business in Berlin - Screenshot of the registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office

You will be informed that you have to enter your details in Ger­man and that regis­tra­tion costs 15 euros.

Registering a business in Berlin - Screenshot of the registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office for business registration - second step
Step 1: Select the legal form and the reason for regis­ter­ing the busi­ness.

First step: Registering a business in Berlin - Screenshot of the registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office
Step 2: Decide when you want to register the busi­ness.

Second step: Registering a business in Berlin - Screenshot of the registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. This explains how to fill in the business registration form.
Step 3: Enter all your com­pany details.

Third steps to registering a business in Berlin - Screenshot of the registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business, here is how it works
Some busi­nesses require a sep­ar­ate oper­at­ing licence. If your busi­ness does not require a licence, you can skip this step.

Third step: Registering a business in Berlin - Screenshot of the registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here you can see how it works and this step is optional.
Step 4: Enter all the inform­a­tion from your com­mer­cial register applic­a­tion here.

Fourth step: Registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business; here we show you how it works.
Step 5: Enter the address of your busi­ness premises.

Fifth step: Register your business in Berlin: Registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business; here we show you how it works.
Step 6: Also provide the con­tact details of your com­pany so that the trade office can con­tact you.

Sixth step in registering a business in Berlin: Registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business; here we show you how it works.
Step 7: Here you can insert your cor­por­ate pur­pose from your company’s art­icles of asso­ci­ation or cer­ti­fic­ate of incor­por­a­tion. In spe­cial cases, it must be spe­cified again at this point.

Step 7 Registering a business in Berlin: Registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here we show you how it works.

 

Step 8: Enter all your per­sonal inform­a­tion here if you are the man­aging dir­ector of the com­pany.

Eighth step in registering a business in Berlin: Registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business; here we show you how it works.
Step 9: This also includes your private res­id­ence.

Ninth step in registering a business in Berlin: Registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business; here we show you how it works.
Step 10: As well as your con­tact details.

Step 10 Registering a business in Berlin: Registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here we show you how it works.
Step 11: Check your details again.

Step 11 Registering a business in Berlin: Registration process at the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here we show you how it works.
Step 12: Enter an e‑mail address to which the con­firm­a­tion of the busi­ness regis­tra­tion can be sent.

12th step Berlin business registration: Registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business; here we show you how it works.
Step 13: Unfor­tu­nately, you will need a credit card to pay the fee. If you as a com­pany do not yet have a credit card, take your private credit card and charge the costs to your com­pany as dis­bursed costs.

13th step Berlin business registration: Registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here we show you how it works.
Step 14: Check all data again.

Step 14 Register a business in Berlin: Registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here we show you how it works.

Step 14 Register a business in Berlin: Registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business, and here we show you how it works. This is the second part of step 14.

Step 15: If you need fur­ther file attach­ments, upload them now.

15th step Berlin business registration: Registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here we show you how it works.
Step 16: Con­firm the pri­vacy policy and the terms of use.

16th step Berlin business registration: Registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here we show you how it works.
Step 17: You must now con­firm that you are an author­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive and are per­mit­ted to make this regis­tra­tion.

17th step Berlin business registration: Registration process of the Berlin Trade Licensing Office. There are various steps involved in registering a business. Here we show you how it works.

Step 18: Last step: Now it’s time for the pay­ment pro­cess.

It will then take one to two weeks until your busi­ness is registered. You will be noti­fied of this. This noti­fic­a­tion is also known as a trade licence.

You can start the busi­ness regis­tra­tion pro­cess here

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