Ask HN: Should I incorporate a company for software side projects?
You have to pay taxes in Germany, it doesn&#x27;t matter if you found a company in the US, Estonia or somewhere else, you are living in Germany and that&#x27;s the important thing that decides you need to pay taxes there.<p>In Germany you could do a &quot;Nebengewerbe or Einzelunternehmen&quot;, where you can write invoices in your name, this is a fast way to get started.<p>Otherwise you have the UG, which can be created with 1 EUR &quot;Stammkapital&quot;, or the GmbH with 25k EUR, but you only need to have 12,5k when founding it.<p>Which taxes have to be paid is different if you do the &quot;Einzelunternehmen&quot; or found a company (UG&#x2F;GmbH). With the company there is the Körperschaftssteuer instead of the Einkommenssteuer, additionally the regular Umsatzsteuer (19%) and also you have to pay Gewerbesteuer. Gewerbesteuer, Körperschaftssteuer and Einkommensteuer all have a free amount per year, if you don&#x27;t hit that limit you don&#x27;t have to pay it.<p>I would advise against founding in a different country, because taxes have to be paid in Germany and founding a company outside of Germany makes it a mess and really expensive.