Ich-AG - Govnmt benefits for starting own business - Germany

Ich AG to start up a new business. Does anyone have any info on this? And i don't mean the 600 Eu/month Ueberbrueckungsgeld, but some kind of start up Kapital. I heard that a few years ago it was really easy to apply for and get this kind of money as means of starting a new business to get out of the unemployment, but because lots of people just "took the money and run", they've made all the rules a lot stricter. Has anyone heard about this?

I should hope no taxpayers money goes to starting new businesses!!!

If your idea is good surely banks and venture capitalists are throwing money in your direction...

Welcome to Germany. Banks don't even show you monopoly money here unless you already have a profitable business.

The Ich AG is a fantastic thing.

You can be dismissive about whether it's right for the government to dish out cash to start-ups. But in my case it totally helped me get my own business off the ground.

A quick summary:

An Ich AG is a one person company. You get financial benefits from the government for three years. The idea is that instead of claiming unemployment benefits whilst looking for a job, you instead start your own business and get money to help you do that.

The benefits are €600 per month for the first year, €360 for the second, and €260 for the third. These are tax free.

To qualify you must first register as unemployed. This is a simple matter of going to the Arbeitsamt and filling out a form which says "I am unemployed". You can then register as an Ich AG. When I registered there was some confusion about whether or not I had to be unemployed for 3 months before qualifying for Ich AG. One official told me I had to wait. Another told me I didn't. I chose to believe the 2nd official. I still don't know which of the two was correct, but my application was processed successfully.

A year or two ago the Ich AG was easy. You just walked up to your unemployment officer, filled out a simple form, and that was it, you got your money transfered to your bank account each month.

Nowadays, because of the unexpectedly high flood of interest in the scheme, the application has been made more difficult. I don't know how it now works first hand (because I'm already in the system) but I believe you have to submit a fairly detailed business plan. In German of course.

If you don't speak German don't even think about attempting this.

The Ich AG is only available to those planning to earn less than €25k per year. If you exceed that sum during your first or second years, you are disqualified from the remaining years.

Note that if you are claiming Ich AG you are obliged to pay into the German state pension system. This is unlike normal freelancers who have no such obligations.

The amount of pension contributions you pay depends on what you intend to earn. The minimum will be about €125 per month. So, effectively your Ich AG benefits in the first year are only €475 - but you do get the state pension (supposedly, although it'll probably be worth nothing in 30 years time).



http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich-AG

http://www.bmwa.bund.de/Redaktion/Inhalte/...roperty=pdf.pdf

And if that post doesn't earn me oodles of positive karma, I don't know what will.

A german friend of mine has just taken this option instead of going into Hertz iv. He had to prepare business planes etc now to get accepted onto this program.

Poots

Greetings
I am new around here... this board offers a wealth of information!

I do have a question about Ich AG -- please correct me if i am wrong, but
isn't this government start up program only available to german citizens?
I visited the BMWA website and nowhere on the english page does it indicate
that foreigners living in germany can apply for this program -- it indicates
dishing out a minimun of 50 000 euros to start up a one person company...
any answer would be much appreciated.
I am currently living in mainz, finished a 6 month internship at a design agency in march
and am looking for full time work in munich -- i need a back up plan if that fails --
starting my own graphic business would be the only solution, and if the Ich AG program
is available to foreigners then it could benefit my situation ( as I do not have 50 000 euros capital!) ... i will be applying for permanent residency in September as i will then be married to my german for 3 years... generous as he is, i am personally tired of having to rely on my husband for everything and want to take my career options into my own hands

many greetings from mainz
hazel

Ich-AG is not only for German citizens.

EU citizens can also claim it.

I don't know about non-EU citizens.

There are other restrictions though. For example, you must first be registered unemployed here. And I think that you must have paid into the "Arbeitslosenversicherung" fund for at least a year (or something like that).

Hi,

anyone who has read my other post knows that I am working on starting my own business, two of them actually. One of them is ecommerce (but this isn't about that). The other is teaching EFL.

I have looked through these forums but frankly it is a bit hard finding the exact info I need as things occassionally get distracting when people start bitching at each other.

So, from what I can make out, teaching English privately could fall under an Ich AG business model. Is this correct?

I have looked on the Arbeitsamt website (link was in other thread) for information regarding Ich AGs but couldn't find anything. Something in English would be particularly useful.

How easy is it to go down to the KVR, say "I am a certified EFL teacher and want to do this officially, so please give me that magic little sentence in my passport that says, "self-employeement allowed"?"

Isn't Ich AG something a little different than the normal "Selbstständigkeit"? If so, how?

Basically, it is easy to teach English on the Schwarzmarkt, but I really don't want to do that. So shouldn't the KVR, knowing how easy it would be for me to work black, be very willing to give me official permission..in order to get taxes out of me?

The "Ich AG" is a simple company form that the German government sponsors to try to move registered unemployed into the self-employed market. Ich-AG founders get government funding (from €600 a month for up to 3 years) to get them off the ground, although there are strict conditions to the application and receipt of the funding. Turnover cannot exceed €25,000 per year

An "Ich AG" has also been used as a trick to get around "Scheinselbständigkeit". This is where a freelancer works predominantly (or exclusively) for the same customer. In such cases it can be argued that the freelancer or customer is simply emulating an employer-employee relationship, but using the self-employed status as a way to avoid pay-as-you-earn taxation, social insurance, pensions and the like. If the Finanzamt suspect "Scheinselbständigkeit" both parties involved can be heavilly fined - it's illegal. A self-employed person is meant to have multiple customers be can bill to. The "Ich AG" is a simple company formation with (usually) a single person as company director and "employee". The Ich AG then sells its services (in effect the services of the company founder) to the customer, and all in the garden is rosey... well sort of...

Ich AGs are losing their popularity because of widespread abuse, and while they will still exist as potential business entities, as the grants are removed or reduced, as is proposed , then they will become less popular.

YL6

After 1.Jul.2006 there will be no new government grants given for Ich AGs.

An Ich AG that is registered before that date will still be able to claim government money until the three years duration of the grant expires.

I know someone above, no not God but Twirlie, said that this shouldn't be attempted without German. I actually have a small programming business in America and it has provided me with income until now, but it has kinda dropped off because all my clients are in America and I am not. I wanted to get something started here but I have been lost on how to do so. This Ich AG thing sounds really cool, but for all intensive purposes I speak no German. Would anyone be willing to help me know what to do? I can get someone to help me tranlate anything I need to submit, but how to start the process if I don't even have a visa yet, and what steps are involved. This would be helpful to know.

How the heck do I get around this? They tell me that I can't get be a freelancer until I get a residency permit and they won't grant me a residency permit without Health insurance, which I have, and pension insurance. And basically I don't have the money to get pension insurance now.

can you set up an ich AG without claiming benefits? and without being necessarily unemployed?

Are you currently unemployed?

There are alternatives to Ich AG - one of which I have just completed.

Again, the best place for advice is the IHK - See another current thread which gives the name and number of the woman to contact.

WH

If you are unemployed, want to go self employed and your benefit is higher than 600E pm, you might want to check out the uberbruchungsgeld option.

Gives you 6 months of benefits PLUS whatever you can earn from your biz regardless of this amount.

You can only get Überbrückungsgeld if you've been employed in Germany though. (I think)