Ah great, not so bad then! So you just need to:

- Form a German holding company to manage the business

- Deal with any conflicting taxation/regulatory issues when operating a german holding company from your new country of residence (in some countries this is not trivial)

- Visit Germany twice per year and potentially more to deal with German authorities that require things be done on paper and in person (hope you didn't move too far away and hopefully you don't have small children!)

- Hire an abnormally expensive tax advisor, hope he is good

- Sell a large portion of the company to fund a giant exit tax bill (!!!!). For many companies this is likely a 1-2 year minimum process, and that's IF they can find a buyer. Not as many PE funds in Europe. Good luck on valuation when the buyer knows you're in this situation.

- Hope the government gives you a reasonable valuation on your company, and hope their decision is similar to that of your buyer (and the timelines for both line up), which I'm sure is a super easy and not at all complicated process.

Fun! I can't possibly see what people are complaining about.

One of the weirdest things about Europe is the irrational nationalism that arises when you tie a language, ethnic-identity, government and country into one thing. Anecdotal, but it feels like this leads to more of an inability to reflect on and criticize things. Americans have far thicker skin when it comes to criticizing themselves.

Can you not see how this incentivizes entrepreneurs to leave or start their companies outside Germany (not sure if you're aware the EU exists). Is this really how you think things should work in a non-authoritarian regime with democratic freedom of movement?

Snark aside, this chart makes total sense to me now: https://i.redd.it/fxks3skmvt4e1.png

Let's be fair here, the GP is comparing this to the complexity of other bureaucracy in Germany. In that context this does sound easy, e.g. here's how you form a GmbH: https://major-grooves.medium.com/just-how-complicated-could-...

    > Snark aside, this chart makes total sense
    > to me now: https://i.redd.it/fxks3skmvt4e1.png

E.g. Booking.com isn't there because it's now ... an American company on paper, but it was started in Europe, has most of its operations there, and (last I checked) Europe was its most important market.

But because the US stock market and US capital dominates globally, companies like that tend to be sold to a US company, and become American on paper. But that financial arrangement doesn't really reflect the overall state of European innovation.

Similarly, there's countless European startups that would have probably had a NASDAQ listing if they'd been US-based, but were instead sold to some of the larger European incumbents in their sector.

The overall amount of innovation delivered to consumers etc. might be the same, so that's more of an artifact of how capital flows in the US v.s. the EU generally.

Germany seems like a great country to be an employee as long as you're happy with making a fraction of what you'd make in any other country and have no designs of doing anything more with your professional life. Provided you can even get a full-time job since they seem to treat keeping your job as a civil right.

How on earth are Tesla, Uber, and T-Mobile not "high-tech"?

I would never again found a company in Germany - not because of the super high tax or these arbitrary rules like you need to pay insane amounts to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) or the GEZ for radios you don’t have; but: dealing with the bureaucracy and the tax authorities is just insane. Like you are required to pay a registered tax accountant do your books then they have “screenings” where you PAY him again to check his work and explain it to the IRS - only to find you missed paying 13.09 EUR of social security for the artist guild. Spent 5k in tax advisory fees and countless working days dealing with the questions over 13 EUR.