If you want to freelance then in a lot of cases you don't need any Gewerbeschein, especially in IT. You need to register as freelance with the tax administration though. Having a UG/GmbH is appealing for other reasons though: Limited Liability is what you're aiming at. There's a lot of other obligations that tag along with that, such as the bookkeeping requirements.
If you want to freelance then in a lot of cases you don't need any Gewerbeschein, especially in IT
Right, but a Gewerbeschein helps if you have any other income that's not from freelancing. For example Google AdSense or Amazon Affiliate links etc.
Limited Liability is what you're aiming at.
That is correct, but in most cases highly overrated for people just starting out, especially in IT. An IT-Betriebshaftpflicht (insurance) could be considered though, depending on the type of work you do.
> Right, but a Gewerbeschein helps if you have any other income that's not from freelancing. For example Google AdSense or Amazon Affiliate links etc.
sure, depending on the income. However, having one subjects you to gewerbesteuer which you can otherwise avoid. So you might want to balance the benefits against the costs.
> That is correct, but in most cases highly overrated for people just starting out, especially in IT
It's highly overrated especially if you're a single person enterprise since then, the owner/ceo can be personally liable in a couple of situations. It's a pretty definite must though if you consider having employees.
Depending on what you want from the company you need a GmbH/UG or similar construction. For example it's very hard to find investors for a GbR since a GbR is not a legal persona and cannot own assets. So all the money invested would be basically given to the founders. For various legal reasons it's very hard to invest money into a startup as a GbR, the chief reason is that the GbR is not required to register who is the CEO and can legally speak for the company.
Still, the chief reason people form a UG/GmbH is limited liability :)
Insurance is a good idea. Also, there are GmbH cooperatives, that have the sole purpose of limiting liability. Its members are basically freelancers, but are employed by this proxy company.
