Legal Matters - Taxes
Overview of the internet offer of the law and taxes business field
On more than 500 pages, entrepreneurs can access useful and valuable information specifically on the important subjects of economic and tax law on the homepage of Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
On more than 500 pages, entrepreneurs can access useful and valuable information specifically on the important subjects of economic and tax law on the homepage of Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
With this, the Law and Taxes business field would like to support the enterprises in all the typical situations of the course of business and also in the entire life cycle. An overview of the subjects can be seen online under www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/recht/uebersicht. All told, Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce provides branch-specific information on more than 5,000 Internet pages.
Here, you can also find links to the most important, most frequently read pages.
Setting up a business
At the start of entrepreneurial activity, questions about setting up the business arise. It is not only a question of choosing the correct legal form and a suitable corporate name for the enterprise to be founded, but also various trade law aspects and approvals have to be observed alongside the business registration, depending on the entrepreneurial activity.
Setting up a business: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/unternehmensrecht
Checking the corporate name: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/firmenrecht
Contract law
Business operations are not imaginable without conclusion of contracts. A focal point of the Internet information is accordingly contract law. The Internet pages concern themselves with the typical problems of concluding a contract and performing the contract, they contain references on the necessity and the design of General Terms and Conditions of Business (AGB), on statutory liability for defects and products and on guarantee promises. Arrears and barring by limitation are also dealt with.
Contract law in general: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/vertragsrecht
General Terms and Conditions of Business (AGB): www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/agb_grundsaetzlich
Specimens
To prepare your own contracts, the section “Specimen Contracts” allows access to typical contract texts. In this section, you can find important standard contracts, for example a partnership agreement of a civil-law partnership (GbR), various forms of employment contracts, a trade representative’s contract, a purchase contract and a lease contract for industrial space. The specimen contracts provide support in the formulation of contractual terms.
In the event of a contracting party not paying, there are aids for the formulation of reminders and carrying out the payment order procedures at the Local Court. On the Internet pages, specimen letters supporting the creditors for insolvency proceedings can also be seen.
Various specimen contracts: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/mustervertraege
Partnership agreement, GbR: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/gbr
Contract for freelance work: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/freier_mitarbeiter
Purchase contract: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/kaufvertrag
Payment order proceedings: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/mahnbescheid
Industrial law
If a company has not employed people directly after its formation, it will do this in the course of its expansion at the latest. In connection with employment of people, industrial law becomes a focus of attention for the first time. The Internet offer in the area of industrial law extends amongst other things to information and aids in the subjects of employment contracts, part-time employment, fictitious self-employment and dismissal.
Industrial law: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/arbeitsrecht
Fiscal law
No enterprise can avoid intensive concern with the subject of taxes. The fact that fiscal law is a highly complex field does not make things easier. There is information about the principles of accounting and the various kinds of taxes, e.g. income tax, corporation tax, turnover tax, trade tax, and also international fiscal law. Current information on fiscal law can be seen in the “IHK-Steuerinfo”, which appears in the Internet each month.
Fiscal law: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/steuern
Accounting: http://www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/existenzgruendung/prozessstruktur/gruendungsanalyse/rechtsform/buchfuehrung/index.html
Competition law
Every enterprise is in competition with other enterprises. Competition law states the legal framework for competition. The Competition Law section tells you what must be observed when designing advertising, how companies can proceed against competitors’ breaches of competition and which competition law claims and procedures exist. For companies which have received cautions themselves, we show the legal possibilities of reaction which exist.
Competition law: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/wettbewerbsrecht
Cautions: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/abmahnung
Alternative dispute regulations
Disputes and legal conflicts sometimes cannot be avoided. The section “Alternative dispute regulation” gives information about the various possibilities of solving conflicts outside state courts. As a supplement, experts publicly certified by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and sworn in are available to examine and assess the facts of the matter.
Alternative dispute regulation: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/streitbeilegung
www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/recht/themen/sv_wesen/index.html
Topical matters
Not least, the Internet offer of the Law and Taxes business field is supplemented by the sections Events and Topical Matters.
Events of the business field: www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/recht/themen/veranstaltungen
Topical Matters: http://www.frankfurt-main.ihk.de/recht/
Juridical Information (German Law Information)
- Starting Business (Foundation of a company)
- link to German law information including cases, statutes, literature and bibliographies on German law in English language (German Law Archive, Oxford University)
- German Statutes in English (German Civil code, Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) in Englisch)
- German Statutes in English (German Civil code, Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) in Englisch)
Taxinformation
Here you can find helpful information and more links about taxes:
Federal Central Department of Taxes (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern - BZSt) - Foreign Investors Help Desk.
There you find information for your business in Germany, also information for freelancers and individuals. For example: German taxes at a glance, registration of a company, tax obligations, employer obligations, advance ruling, avoidance of double taxation, income tax, corporation tax, trade tax, value added tax, investment grant.
More useful information you will get from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie) - business start-up portal:
If you will start a business in Germany you should contact a tax consultant concerning the tax questions. Please contact the Federal Chamber of Tax Consultants.