You have done the homework on whether to expand into Germany. Now comes the question every founder actually asks first: what will it cost? The figure that frightens people, the €25,000, turns out to be the one number that is not a cost at all. The real costs are smaller, fixed, and predictable, once someone separates them out honestly. This guide does that, line by line, for a foreign founder forming a GmbH in 2026.
Do you lose the €25,000 share capital when you form a GmbH?
No. The €25,000 is your own money and stays inside your company — it is not a fee and not locked away.
At formation, at least €12,500 must be paid into the company’s bank account before the Handelsregister will enter the company. But “paid in” does not mean “frozen.” The money is not held in escrow and not surrendered to anyone. Once it sits in the company account, the GmbH spends it like any other working capital: on rent, equipment, the first invoices, the Steuerberater. It is your company’s opening balance, not a deposit you forfeit.
So the €25,000 belongs in a different column from everything that follows. The actual cost of forming a GmbH is the fees paid to third parties to bring the company into existence, and those are far smaller than the capital figure that scares most people off.
One point of discipline follows, especially if the company will sit quiet for a while after formation. The capital being usable does not mean it should drain away unwatched. If accumulated losses consume half the Stammkapital, the managing director (Geschäftsführer) is obliged under § 49 Abs. 3 GmbHG to call a shareholders’ meeting without delay — a personal responsibility that carries real liability if neglected. A dormant company is exactly where this gets overlooked, so keep an eye on the balance.
How much does the notary cost to form a GmbH in Germany?
For a standard €25,000 GmbH, expect roughly €800–1,000 — and it is the one fee no founder can avoid.
German law requires the articles of association and the formation itself to be notarized; there is no online-only or do-it-yourself route around this. The fee is not freely set either: it follows a statutory scale (the Gerichts- und Notarkostengesetz, GNotKG) tied to the share capital, so notaries do not compete on price for a standard formation. The same €25,000 GmbH costs essentially the same at any notary. That €800–1,000 covers notarizing the articles, recording the managing director’s appointment, and filing to the trade register.
That figure rises with complexity. More shareholders, higher share capital, or custom-drafted articles with special provisions (voting arrangements, transfer restrictions, profit rules) all increase the notarial work and the fee, which can run to €1,500–2,000 or beyond.
For founders based abroad, one practical point matters more than the fee itself. If you cannot attend in person, you act through an apostilled power of attorney, prepared and certified separately, often in your home country. That is an additional cost on top of the German notary’s fee, and worth budgeting from the start.
How much does a Steuerberater cost to set up a GmbH?
Plan for a Steuerberater from day one, in parallel with formation — not as an optional extra. The setup involvement is modest; the larger cost is the ongoing annual work once the company runs.
This is the most misunderstood line in any GmbH budget, so it is worth separating cleanly.
A Steuerberater belongs in the process from the start, alongside the notary, not after the company exists. The Steuernummer application to the Finanzamt, the correct tax setup, the opening structure of the books — this runs in parallel with formation, and getting it right at the outset is what prevents expensive corrections later. For a foreign-owned GmbH especially, the tax registration is part of becoming operational, not a step you bolt on once the dust settles. Budget for this setup involvement as a real, expected cost: typically a few hundred euros to a modest setup fee, depending on the firm and the complexity of your structure.
The larger cost arrives once the company operates, and it is unavoidable: a GmbH cannot legally close its books without a Steuerberater or auditor. The annual accounts (Jahresabschluss), the corporate and trade tax returns, and the filing to the Unternehmensregister all require one. For a small GmbH, a realistic range is €2,500–6,000 per year for the annual accounts and returns, with monthly bookkeeping on top depending on how you handle it. Fees follow a statutory scale (the Steuerberatervergütungsverordnung, StBVV) tied to your turnover and balance sheet, so they scale with the size of the business.
A practical note for planning: the cleaner your bookkeeping during the year, the lower the year-end bill. Founders who hand over a shoebox of receipts pay for the time it takes to sort it; tidy digital records cost less.
So your formation budget should include the Steuerberater from the outset, and you should know the ongoing annual figure before you start, because it is the recurring cost of running a GmbH.
What are the other costs of forming a GmbH?
Beyond notary and Steuerberater, the remaining fees are small and fixed: trade register, trade-office registration, business address, and a bank account.
- Trade register (Handelsregister) entry: €225. This is the court fee for entering the company, and it increased from €150 to €225 on 1 June 2025 (the first rise since 2011). Any cost guide quoting €150 is out of date. The notary usually collects it and passes it through on their invoice.
- Trade-office registration (Gewerbeanmeldung): roughly €15–65. A municipal fee that varies by city. Berlin around €26, Hamburg €20, Munich €47. Minor, but a separate step from the trade register.
- Business address. A GmbH needs a registered address in Germany from the start. If you don’t have your own premises, a business-address or virtual-office service runs roughly €1,200–3,000 per year. For a founder based abroad, this is often the larger of the recurring early costs, so budget it deliberately.
- Bank account. A digital provider that accepts a GmbH in Gründung (such as Finom) opens an account in around 24 hours, free to open, roughly €9 per month thereafter, so well under €1,000 over a full year. A traditional German bank may be slower and, for foreign founders specifically, can take several weeks. The digital route is what lets you deposit capital and move toward the trade-register filing quickly.
So how much does it cost to form a GmbH in Germany? (2026 summary)
Setting aside the €25,000 capital, which stays in your company, realistic one-time formation costs run roughly €1,500–3,000 for a standard GmbH.
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Notary | €800–1,000 (more for custom articles) |
| Trade register (Handelsregister) | €225 |
| Trade-office registration (Gewerbeanmeldung) | €15–65 |
| Steuerberater (setup involvement) | a few hundred euros |
| Apostilled power of attorney (if abroad) | varies, home country |
| One-time total | ~€1,500–3,000 |
Then the recurring costs that begin once the company runs: the business address (€1,200–3,000/year), the bank account (€9/month digital), and the Steuerberater’s annual work (~€2,500–6,000/year). These are the cost of operating a GmbH, not of forming it.
A point that eases the math: these recurring costs do not have to come from your pocket. Once the €25,000 capital sits in the company account, the GmbH can pay them from that capital like any other operating expense — the address, the bank fees, the Steuerberater. The capital is working money, and the early running costs of the company are exactly the kind of thing it is there for. (Keeping the earlier discipline in mind: watch the balance so it does not quietly erode while the company is not yet earning.)
One caveat on the bank account, because it is the step most likely to stall. How easily you can open one depends heavily on your nationality. Digital providers move fast for many founders, but for citizens of certain countries the compliance and identity checks (KYC) are stricter, and some banks decline non-resident or non-EU applicants outright. This is rarely the cost problem founders expect; it is a time and access problem, and it is where a founder based abroad most often gets stuck. Worth anticipating before you start, not discovering at the capital-deposit stage.
Optional: legal or formation-advisory support
Separate from the mandatory fees above, many founders, especially those based abroad, engage a lawyer or a formation consultant to organize the process: coordinating notary and bank, preparing the power of attorney, structuring the parent-subsidiary relationship correctly, and handling the steps that are hard to navigate from outside Germany. This is not a legal requirement and not part of the figures above. It is a choice about whether to run the formation yourself or have it managed.
Costs here are not set by statute and depend entirely on scope. As a rough orientation, formation-advisory engagements start around €2,500 for a straightforward setup and can run into the tens of thousands where the structure is complex, several jurisdictions are involved, or ongoing hands-on management is needed. The value is usually less about the paperwork itself and more about the points where a foreign-owned formation actually stalls — the bank access, the apostille chain, the beneficial-owner structure — which the earlier sections of this guide describe.
For the full formation process around these costs, see the complete GmbH formation guide; for how long it all takes, see how long it takes to register a GmbH.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to form a GmbH in Germany? Setting aside the €25,000 share capital, which stays in your company as working money, one-time formation costs run roughly €1,500–3,000 for a standard GmbH: notary (€800–1,000), trade register (€225), trade-office registration (€15–65), and modest Steuerberater setup involvement.
Do you lose the €25,000 share capital? No. The capital is not a fee and not locked away. Once paid into the company account it belongs to the GmbH and is spent like any other working capital — rent, equipment, invoices, and the company’s own running costs.
How much does the notary cost to form a GmbH? For a standard €25,000 GmbH, roughly €800–1,000. Notary fees follow a statutory scale (GNotKG) tied to share capital, so they are essentially the same at any notary; custom articles or more shareholders raise the figure.
How much does a Steuerberater cost for a GmbH setup? The setup involvement is modest — a few hundred euros — and should run in parallel with formation from day one. The larger, unavoidable cost is the ongoing annual work (annual accounts and tax returns), typically €2,500–6,000 per year for a small GmbH.
Can a foreigner open a GmbH in Germany? Yes. There is no nationality or residence restriction on owning a GmbH. The practical hurdle is usually the bank account: depending on your nationality, identity and compliance checks can be stricter, and some banks decline non-resident applicants — a time-and-access issue more than a cost one.
What does it cost to have a lawyer or consultant handle the formation? This is optional and not set by statute. Formation-advisory engagements start around €2,500 for a straightforward setup and can reach the tens of thousands where the structure is complex or spans several jurisdictions.
Forming a GmbH is not expensive. Forming one cleanly, from abroad, with the bank, the notary, the tax registration, and the ownership structure all lined up in the right order, is where the real difficulty lies — and where most of the cost of getting it wrong hides. To see how the numbers and the steps map to your own situation, our interactive formation guide walks you through it, and you can book a 30-minute call to talk it through directly.