Closing down a Company in Germany
Sadly, your company's plans have not worked out. Still, a terrible end is better than unending terror…
If you do not close the GmbH or UG in time, the director may become personally liable for debts, and bankruptcy criminality can begin. When is the best time to liquidate? The owner and/or director knows best. It is time to close down a company when shareholders see no near-term prospect of operational success and before the company cannot pay its outstanding debts in a foreseeable time.
My following offer assumes that you have a "clean" liquidation situation: no outstanding debts, no account seizures, or the like. It is no real problem if the shareholder lives abroad; his travel is not required. We handle everything remotely! Remote support will be at no additional cost.
Our tasks for the assignment of closing the company will be:
- applying to close the company at the Commercial Court via the notary,
- providing you with a nutshell on the procedure and time frames,
- drafting the required bilingual shareholders' resolution,
- installing myself as the company's liquidator,
- visiting the notary to apply formally,
- discussing any follow-up questions from the Commercial Court,
- publishing mandatory declarations at the beginning and end of the one-year liquidation phase as the company's liquidator,
- attempting to prematurely end your membership in the Chamber of Commerce (aka IHK) to save you further costs,
- forwarding such information to the shareholder as it occurs,
- paying the fees for
- notary,
- Commercial Registry
- and
- mandatory publications,
- signing off the final tax returns and balance sheets with the existing tax consultant after your approval,
- opening a special escrow account and closing the current business account to protect the shareholder(s).
These are our standard services for a UG or GmbH, which usually cost €1300 and are invoiced to a shareholder. N.B. These fees apply if the statutory capital is up to € 25k. If your company has a higher capital, please ask for an individual quote. Please let me know if you need different support or more or fewer services. No worries. We will support you in case additional issues arise. We will resolve further concerns on a time-fee basis. The procedure will take around one and a half years – and cannot be significantly reduced. If we do notice that the proceedings can be shortened, we will return some of our fees.
If you are interested in this service, please fill out the assignment form on the next page.