munich business

No. In Munich, following a landmark ruling by the Munich City Council in October 2019, city-owned properties are only available as leasehold (“Erbbaurecht”) contracts. The ruling applies to city-owned commercial and inner-city (“Kerngebiet”) property.

Exceptions must be well-founded, require consultation with the City Council, and are rarely granted.

Details on contracts can be found in the “Vertragsbedingungen im Erbbaurecht und den gewerblichen Bindungen” (Contractual conditions in the ground lease - pdf, only available in German).

 Munich’s Business Startup Office provides expert, impartial and free advice to people wanting to go self-employed. We provide start-up knowledge and business plan models, checklists and local points of contact, as well as the “Erfolgreich gründen – Was kommt auf mich zu?” info event for people who want to start a business.

Before you launch your new business, you are required to register it with the Trade Office [Gewerbeamt] if you are not a member of the liberal professions [Freie Berufe]. In a second step you submit the “Fragebogen für die steuerliche Erfassung” [Tax Assessment Questionnaire] to the Munich tax office. You will need to register first under www.elster.de in order to be able to fill in this online form and submit it electronically to the tax office. The tax office will then issue a tax number (Steuernummer) for your business which you will put on all invoices you write.

Information on required documents, fees and process flow is explained on www.startup-in-munich.de/starting-up/registration

Liberal professions (Freie Berufe) are not required to register with the Trade Office. Instead they register their self-employment directly with the Munich tax office. If you are in doubt, please contact us at Munich‘s Business Startup Office to verify whether your planned self-employed activity is classified a liberal profession.