What is the IHK?

What is the IHK and who needs to become a mem­ber?

The Cham­ber of Industry and Com­merce is a cent­ral organ­isa­tion for the rep­res­ent­a­tion of interests and sup­port of com­pan­ies in Ger­many. Mem­ber­ship is for almost all com­mer­cial enter­prises man­dat­ory. There are only excep­tions for freel­an­cers, craft busi­nesses and agri­cul­tural com­pan­ies, which are gen­er­ally assigned to other cham­bers such as the Cham­ber of Crafts (HWK) or the Cham­ber of Agri­cul­ture.

When does IHK mem­ber­ship become neces­sary?

Mem­ber­ship is required for all com­pan­ies that are com­mer­cially act­ive. This includes

1. Sole pro­pri­et­ors and tradersWhen you register a busi­ness, you auto­mat­ic­ally become a mem­ber.
2. Cor­por­a­tionsThese include com­pan­ies such as GmbHs or AGs, which are also assigned to the IHK.
3. Part­ner­shipsOHGs and KGs as well as GmbH & Co. KGs are also sub­ject to the IHK.

Excep­tionsFreel­an­cers (e.g. doc­tors, law­yers), craft busi­nesses (these belong to the Cham­ber of Crafts) and agri­cul­tural busi­nesses are not sub­ject to IHK regis­tra­tion.

What does the Cham­ber of Industry and Com­merce do?

There are sev­eral import­ant func­tions that can be divided into three main areas:

1. Rep­res­ent­a­tion of interestsIt rep­res­ents the interests of com­pan­ies vis-à-vis politi­cians, both at regional and national level. It cam­paigns for busi­ness-friendly frame­work con­di­tions.
2. Advice and ser­viceIt offers com­pre­hens­ive advice for start-ups and exist­ing com­pan­ies. This includes top­ics such as fin­an­cing, law, taxes, exports, the envir­on­ment and digit­al­isa­tion. It provides sup­port in draw­ing up busi­ness plans, offers mar­ket ana­lyses and helps with legal issues.
3. Train­ing and fur­ther edu­ca­tionIt is respons­ible for the organ­isa­tion and imple­ment­a­tion of dual train­ing. It mon­it­ors and reg­u­lates voca­tional train­ing, organ­ises exam­in­a­tions and ensures qual­ity assur­ance. The IHK is also a cent­ral point of con­tact for fur­ther train­ing pro­grammes.
4. Busi­ness start-ups and busi­ness devel­op­mentIt sup­ports founders from the ini­tial idea to its real­isa­tion. It offers sem­inars, fund­ing pro­grammes and net­works that are par­tic­u­larly help­ful for start-ups.

What does mem­ber­ship cost?

The costs for IHK mem­ber­ship are made up of two com­pon­ents:

1. Basic con­tri­bu­tionThe basic fee is a fixed annual amount that can vary depend­ing on the IHK and the size of the com­pany. For small com­pan­ies or start-ups, the fee is often between 30 and 70 euros per year. Lar­ger com­pan­ies usu­ally pay higher basic fees.
2. LevyThe levy is based on the company’s trad­ing income or profit and is usu­ally a small per­cent­age of this. For small com­pan­ies, the levy can be in the low three-digit range, while it can be sig­ni­fic­antly higher for large com­pan­ies.

Exemp­tion from con­tri­bu­tions may be pos­sible in the fol­low­ing cases:

1. Micro-enter­prisesthat are not lis­ted in the com­mer­cial register and whose annual profit remains below € 5,200 can be exemp­ted from pay­ing con­tri­bu­tions.

New founderIf you are not entered in the com­mer­cial register, you are exempt from pay­ing the basic con­tri­bu­tion for the first two years and the levy for the first four years. The pre­requis­ite for this is that the annual income does not gen­er­ally exceed € 25,000.

When does the affil­i­ation begin?

IHK affil­i­ation begins for:

• Small traders, sole traders and part­ner­ships (OHG, KG)With the com­mence­ment of com­mer­cial activ­ity, i.e. with par­ti­cip­a­tion in gen­eral eco­nomic trans­ac­tions.
• Cor­por­a­tions (GmbHAG, UG lim­ited liab­il­ity)With the entry in the com­mer­cial register.

A sep­ar­ate declar­a­tion of acces­sion is not required. The trade author­ity and the registry court for­ward the cor­res­pond­ing applic­a­tions and regis­tra­tions to the Cham­ber of Industry and Com­merce.

Where can I find more inform­a­tion?

There are a num­ber of cham­bers of industry and com­merce in Ger­many. You can find out which one is respons­ible for your region at fol­low­ing page out.

Ber­lin office
Bleib­treustrasse 38/39
10623 Ber­lin

info@start-bereit.com
+49 30 41734256