Register your small business in ~30 minutes

PDF

PDF

Excel

The pictures show made-up data of a demo client. Hover over a document to take a closer look.

Tell us about yourself — once your application is approved, we open your partner dashboard with one demo questionnaire so you can see the whole client journey.

Roughly how many clients per month?

1–5

6–15

16–40

more than 40

Name

Phone

E-mail

Business website

Which languages does the contact person speak?

Deutsch

English

Polski

Türkçe

Română

Українська

Русский

Български

I work as a business (Gewerbe, freelance profession or company).

Send

0 €cost

2–3 eveningstime

• The form and questionnaire in German officialese
• Access to the tax office portal: instantly with eID, by letter — up to 2 weeks
• The office will spot a mistake, not you

An honest path if you read German confidently.

from 200 €cost

2–3 weekstime

• Find someone who takes new clients
• Meeting, documents, correspondence
• Often only together with year-round support

Makes sense if your business is complex from the start.

from 68 €cost

30 minutestime

• Questions in your language
• Ready documents right after payment
• Made a mistake? We'll fix it for free

For those who start their business themselves.

Advisor fees are a guide based on public price lists; a particular advisor may charge differently.

The set depends on your type of business — the service determines it from the first questions. Open any file to see what it looks like. The data in the examples is made up and deliberately blurred.

Answers for the tax office

Offer and invoice

Instructions

Registration application

Answers for the tax office

Offer and invoice

Instructions

The questions on the website take 30 minutes, 38 on average. After that it depends on your access to the tax office portal: with the online ID function (eID) it opens almost immediately, while a code by post takes up to two weeks. The tax number itself arrives by letter from the tax office (Finanzamt): timelines depend on the state. We remove the mistakes that get applications sent back, and the weeks spent decoding terms.

Tick what you already have. Ticks are saved only in this browser.0 / 14 done

Everyone needs

Passport or ID card

Residence permit that allows self-employmentNot needed for EU citizens. The questionnaire asks for the date of issue and the issuing office (Ausländerbehörde).

Registered address in Germany (Meldeadresse)As on your registration certificate (Meldebescheinigung).

Tax identification number (Steuer-ID)11 digits, no letters. It arrives by letter after your first address registration in Germany; it is also on your annual payroll tax certificate (Lohnsteuerbescheinigung). Don't confuse it with the tax number (Steuernummer).Looks like: 12 345 678 901 12345678901

Start date of the activityAn estimate is fine — for example, the first day of next month.

Description of your work in your own wordsWhat you do and for whom. You can dictate it — the service will word it in German.

Expected income and revenueRoughly — for the starting year and the next year. It doesn't need to be exact.

If you're employed: employment contract or payslipsArbeitsvertrag or Lohnabrechnungen — to enter your gross salary for the year.

IBAN of the business accountIn Germany it has 22 characters: DE and 20 digits. You can add it later.Looks like: DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00

Only for business registration (Gewerbe)

Address where the business will operateIf not from home — for example a studio, office or warehouse.

Permits or qualifications, if neededFor example for food, crafts that require a master craftsman, or transport. Not sure? The service will tell you based on your description.

Business nameOnly if you want a separate name.

If you already have them

Tax number (Steuernummer)You have one if you have filed an income tax return before. 10–11 digits with slashes; the format depends on the federal state.Looks like: 123/4567/8901 21/815/08150

EU VAT number (USt-IdNr.)DE and 9 digits. Only needed if you work with companies from other EU countries; you can apply for a new one right in the questionnaire.Looks like: DE123456789

Missing something? Start anyway: your answers are saved in the browser and you can come back later.

You don't need to choose in advance. The first questions determine whether you need a business registration application (Gewerbe) or belong to the freelance professions (Freiberufler), and the service guides you along the right path and suggests the right plan. If your answers show that a different plan suits you, we'll recalculate the payment: you pay the difference or get it refunded.

Most likely it's the German terms and local bureaucracy that keep you from starting — and that means missed opportunities worth thousands of euros. You can, and if you read German confidently, that's an honest path. You don't pay for the form but for not having to figure it out: questions in your native language, a check of your answers before sending, ready documents and the tax office questionnaire with line numbers as on the tax office portal — you send it yourself in ten minutes. On average this saves weeks of decoding terms and months of fixing mistakes.

Before sending, you see all your answers on one screen and can correct any of them. In individual cases, if the office is missing some information, you'll get a letter asking for it or a call on your mobile. Write to us — we'll work out exactly what's needed and prepare a corrected document at no extra cost.

Payment comes at the very end, after you've checked your answers and seen which documents you'll get. That's why there are no refunds for work already done. But if there's a mistake in the documents — even an oversight on your side — write to us via the feedback form and attach the file: we'll look into it and fix it for free.

Usually not for the start: registering and getting a tax number don't require an advisor. But some decisions affect the years ahead — for example, the VAT exemption for small businesses or your income forecast. At those points we say it plainly: here it's worth talking to a tax advisor (Steuerberater) instead of guessing.

No. GmbH, UG (haftungsbeschränkt), GbR, OHG, KG, GmbH & Co. KG, e. K. and associations (Verein, gGmbH) can't be set up through the service: they need a notary, an entry in the commercial register (Handelsregister) and often a company account with share capital. We deliberately built this service for those who have the courage to start a business on their own — for Einzelunternehmen and Freiberufler. Our goal is to help entrepreneurship gain a strong position in the country's economy and remove the barriers that have built up over decades.

There is no ready-made list of “allowed professions”. The basis is § 18 Einkommensteuergesetz: it lists the freelance professions — doctors, lawyers, tax advisors, engineers, architects, journalists, translators, teachers and similar ones. We compare your activity with this list and show which it is closer to. The final decision is made by the Finanzamt — based on the substance of the work, not the job title, so the same profession can be assessed differently for two people. There are also mixed cases: part of the activity is freelance, part is Gewerbe. Then you need separate bookkeeping, and that's a topic for a Steuerberater.

Yes: the tax office accepts the questionnaire only through the ELSTER portal (paper only in rare exceptions). But you don't have to wait for the letter with the code. When registering, choose the option for a business without a tax number — registration by e-mail: the codes arrive by mail at once, and you can send the questionnaire the same day. Just as fast with the online ID function (eID). The usual personal registration sends the code by post, usually up to two weeks. Your guide shows exactly how. We do the main part: we turn the confusing German questionnaire into your answers and send you a PDF where every line is numbered the same way as on the portal. All that's left is to copy them over and click “send”.

In many cities you can submit the application online — on the map above these states are marked with the icon. If your city doesn't offer online submission, we'll tell you how to submit the application and what to bring.

Yes. You answer in your own language, and the documents are created in German. We explain every term in plain words.

The data is used only to prepare and submit your documents. Details in the privacy policy at the bottom of the page.

Every fourth new entrepreneur in Germany is a foreign national

Destatis, table 52311-0056: in 2025, 151,252 of 607,573 new sole proprietors had foreign citizenship.

FocusI choose a business I believe in

ActI turn intention into action

GrowI get results, learn and grow

We want entrepreneurship to gain a strong position in the country's economy, and the barriers that have built up over decades to be removed step by step and properly. Right now we are digitizing and standardizing the first steps of starting your own business.

The service was created first of all for people from abroad who start a business in Germany. For a native resident who speaks the language and is used to dealing with authorities, it's a formality. For a newcomer, it means weeks among terms they don't understand. And often it's not about registering a hobby but about providing for a family.

We are building this as infrastructure, not as a one-off service: the more people take the first steps without barriers, the more legal income, taxes and jobs the country gets. That's why the project is open to grant and partner programs that support entrepreneurship and integration — from state programs to foundations working with migrant self-employment.

Love is about how we treat people. And about how important it is to choose work that supports you: that gives you the energy to be caring and to enjoy your own results.

Love Act Grow is a digital assistant for the business registration application (Gewerbeanmeldung, form GewA 1) and the tax office questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung). People answer simple questions in their own language, and the official German forms are built from the answers. You don't have to master the language of the authorities to start legally.

Who it's forFounders who have moved countries. For them, their own business is often a matter of making a living rather than a side job — and the threshold is higher: the unfamiliar language of the authorities, unknown institutions, no family experience to draw on.

The problemThe forms themselves are free, but they assume prior knowledge. Mistakes lead to queries, delays and wrong tax decisions — or to registration being put off while income stays informal.

Our contributionWe digitize and standardize the first steps: classifying the activity, completed forms, offer and invoice templates and personal instructions — in several languages and on your phone.

Expected impactMore legally registered micro-businesses, earlier tax registration, fewer applications sent back by the authorities and a short path to economic independence.

CooperationWe are open to grant programs and partnerships — with the economic development agencies of states and cities (Wirtschaftsförderung), integration commissioners (Integrationsbeauftragte), chambers of industry and commerce (IHK) and founder support centers (Startercenter), chambers of crafts (Handwerkskammer) and foundations working on self-employment among newcomers.

Love Act Grow does not replace tax or legal advice and is not an official portal. Where a decision affects your taxes in the long run, we refer you directly to a tax advisor.