The "Gewerbeschein" business license - Germany

Hi all,

I want to know about the "Gewerbeschein". how does one pay tax with it? does the money come to us from the finanzamt ( as with lohnsteuerkarte) or we have to pay the tax by ourselves. What are the loopholes if any?

I am a student and want to know if i am eligible for getting a gewerbeschein. do you recommend doing any freelance jobs with it?

Is doing job with a lohnsteurkarte better than doing it with gewerbeschein?
Someone told me that its risky to do work with gewerbeschein as there are many "loopholes" can you exaplain any if you know any of them?

What is the upper cap of taxable income, for this type of work permit?

any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

A gewehrbeschein is a bussiness licence...

Unless you want to pay MORE taxes, then don't get it...

I am a freelance teacher, or will be staring Jan. I already have the freelance statement in my passport with my residency permit. I know I need to get this Gewehrbeschein thing when I start actually working - where do I go - and how easy/hard is it to get. Thanks

As a freelance programmer, I know that you don't need a Gewerbeschein, but I am not sure about a teacher. The rule has something to do with it being "geistlich", ie. "intellectual" work. I would check into this if I were you, as you would have to pay extra "Gewerbe" tax to the city or "Gemeinde".

Freelance teachers don't need a Gewerbeschein either.

Thanks showem One less thing to worry about.

Hi

I'll (hopefully!) be working in Berlin for about two months over the summer. The company have told me they need to see my Gewerbeschein before I start working for them - can anyone point me in the right direction for sorting this out please? I'd be really grateful - everything I've read so far has just confused me and my German is very limited!

Thanks

Another thing: next to throwing yourself open to Gewerbesteuer liability, if you register for and obtain a Gewerbeschein your details will also be passed on automatically to the local Chamber of Commerce who will send you a demand for a - compulsory! annual membership fee. And we arent talking about 10 or 20 euros either.

Basic rule in Germany should always be: register as little as possible. These people are not your friends.

Great. That'll be worth a few sleepless nights.

... first two years are free though.

There are a few things like translating and teaching English for which you do not need a Gewerbeschein.
For most free-lance work you need one.
I did some free-lance telephone work for a local Zeitarbeit firm and they would not pay me unless I had a Gewerbeschein.
It was a cheap and easy process to get one (because of my lowish turnover) at the Handelskammer.
The Handelskammer also offered a certain amount of free advice, help and advertising.
But then Hamburg is a business-friendly place.

If I want to sub-contract out to another free-lancer, must I insist that they have a Gewerberschein, or would they be covered by my/my company having one? This is assuming of course that they are a registered freelancer and not someone just trying to make a bit of dosh on the side.

Any ideas?

The "registration" of a "registered freelancer" is his Gewerbeschein.
To answer your question, and assuming you are not working in a profession where a Gewerbeschein is required (e.g. law, accountancy, medicine, arts) then the subcontractor should have a Gewerbeschein to legally write you an invoice. Equally you should check he has the paperwork required as if he hasn't you could be subsequently assumed to be his "employer" especially if he has no other customers, so you would be then responsible for employer issues such as tax, pension and social insurance payments.

I have never got my head around this and have heard conflicting views. I work free-lance for an archaeology firm. I make my invoices and get paid. No need for a Gewerbeschein. I also work as a tour guide for myself and recently got asked for ID by the rozzers. They made a big stink saying that it was not enough to be self-employed but that I also had to have a Gewerbeschein. I subsequently got one sorted. Since then colleagues in the archaeology firm have suggested to me that the cops where talking nonsense and that the G-schein Ampt should have realised that I didn't need one and didn't tell me just to get some money out of me. I'm glad I got the thing as getting grilled by the cops on Marienplatz is not so good for business.

Reason for the enquiry on this thread is that I might want to use an extra bod come Oktoberfest and want to go about it the right way.

Each city may be a little different, but my husband and I registered our tour company and got our Gewerbeschein that we keep with us all the time when touring. While waiting at our "Meeting Point", I have been asked several times if I have a license. I show them the schein, they say thanks, all is in order and walk away.

No one has ever said anything about that Chamber of Commerce thing though. The one mistake I did make was to register for the Umsatzsteuer ID. Big mistake, it has cost me a lot of money and headache to get that removed. As a new business owner, I can make up to 17,000 € the first year without having to pay any umstatzsteuer. The 2nd year it is even more. The tax people I got to help me sort this all out were really helpful, gave me all kinds of good tips and did my taxes for 450 euro last year. I ended up having to pay zero taxes. I also had 2 part time jobs that helped defray some costs, like health insurance.

Frankfurt has some weird law that you cannot sell tickets on the street, but it is ok on private property. This would need an extra license at 150 € per year, per person with an extra polizei check. We did not get this, and just do the tickets in a cafe on drink break. Don't know about Berlin or Munich.