Germany

Business Environment

Business practices

For further information: German Business Etiquette
For further information: German Business Portal
Closed hours and days: Saturday and Sunday are not working days. On Friday afternoons, companies often close about 3 to 4 pm.

Public holidays

New Year's Day	1st January
Good Friday	March or April
Easter Monday	March or April
Labor Day	1st May
Ascension	the sixth Thursday after Easter
Whit Monday	the seventh Monday after Easter
German Unification Day	3 October
1st day of Christmas	25 December
2nd day of Christmas	26 December
Epiphany (Bade-Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt)	6 January
Corpus Christi (Bade-Wurtemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland Palatinate, Saarland and Thuringe in places where the majority of the population is Catholic)	sixty days after Easter
Assumption (Bavaria (in places where the majority of the population is Catholic) and Saarland)	15 August
Reformation Day (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western-Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringe)	31 October
All Saints (Bade-Wurtemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland Palatinate, Saarland)	1st November
Day of fasting and prayer (Saxony)	19 November 2008

Compensation day: If a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it is not compensated for.

Periods when companies usually close

Christmas holidays	from the end of December to the beginning of January
Easter holidays	from Good Friday to Easter Monday

Standards

National standards organizations

Deutsche Institut für Normung
Deutsche Kommission Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik im DIN une VDE e. V
Verband der Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik

Integration in the international standards network

At the European level:
- CEN, European Committee for Standardization
- CENELEC, European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization
- European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)

At the International level:
- International Standards organization (ISO)
- International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Classification of standards

CE, DIN, ISO

Online consultation of standards

Beuth
The on-line catalog of European standards
The ISO catalog
The IEC catalog

Certification organizations

DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung e. V
ISO Internationale Organisation für Normung

Legal framework

Independence of justice: Judicial power in Germany is independent.
Equal treatment of nationals and foreigners: Germany is a constitutional State. Foreign nationals can always benefit from the same treatment as that reserved for citizens in legal matters.
The language of justice: The legal language is German.
Having recourse to an interpreter: Possible
Sources of the law and legal similarities: The main source of the law is the constitution of May 1949 known as the fundamental law which has also become the constitution of reunified Germany. The country's judicial system is based on a system of civil law bringing together indigenous concepts and judicial revisions of different legislative acts by the Federal Constitutional Court. Germany has not accepted the obligatory jurisdiction of the ICJ. As it is part of the European Union, its national law is bound to submit to the conditions of Community legislation.
Consulting national laws online: German Law Journal
Bundesrecht.de
German Official Gazette
German Official Gazette via Makrolog.de
Ministry of Justice Database
Juris
Deutsche Anwalt Portal

Intellectual Property

National organizations: The organization responsible for the protection of intellectual property in Germany is the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA).
Regional organizations: For the protection of patents: The European Patent Office.
Governing trade marks, designs and models: The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market.
International membership: Member of the WIPO
Signatory to the Paris Convention
Membership to TRIPS

National regulation and international agreements

Type of property	Law	Validity	International agreements signed
Patent	PatAnwO (Patent Anwalts Ordnung) 1966	Initial 3 year period of validity	Patent Cooperation Treaty Strasbourg agreement concerning the International Patent Classification
Trademark	MarkenG 1995	10 year period of validity	Trademark law treaty Nice agreement concerning the International classification of goods and Services for the Purposes of the registration of Marks Protocol relating to the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks
Design
Copyright			Berne convention for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against unauthorized duplication of their phonograms Rome convention for the protection of performers, producers of phonograms and Broadcasting organizations
Industrial Models

Tax rates

Consumption taxes

Nature of the tax: Umsatzsteuer (USt)
Tax rate: 19% since 1 January 2007.
Reduced tax rate: A reduced rate of 7% is applied to food, public transport, books and magazines and other products.
A rate of 0% is applied to exports.

Corporate taxes

Tax rate

Corporate tax (Körperschaftssteuer) : joint stock companies and assimilated legal entities are liable for this tax.	:	25% for profits put in reserve as well as for reinvested profits + solidarity contribution (Solidaritätszuschlag : 5.5% of the amount of corporate tax due). The true rate of corporate tax is 26.37%.
Professional tax (Gewerbesteuer) paid by any natural person or legal entity exercising a commercial or industrial activity in Germany.	:	The amount depends on the rate voted by the municipality and on a multiplier (the effective rate varies from 12% to 20% of profits, before deduction of the tax itself).

Capital gains taxation

For capital gains on asset disposal, there is a single tax rate of 25% (+ a surtax of 5.5%).
Capital gains from share transfer in resident and non-resident subsidiaries are exempt from corporate tax up to 95%, whatever the stock and the length of time it has been held.

Sources of fiscal information

Tax Authorities: The tax department; The Federal Finance Bureau
Other domestic resources

Accounting rules

Tax year

The tax year begins on 1 January and finishes on 31 December of the same year.

Accounting standards

Accounting priciples and regulations in Germany are in the "German Accounting Standards" - GAS (Deutsche Rechnungslegungs Standards - DRS) which are published by the German standardization bureau: the Deutsches Rechnungslegungs Standards Committee (DRSC). There is no compulsory official accounting plan in Germany. It is up to each company to choose the form, the language and the currency.

Accounting regulation bodies

Deutsches Rechnungslegungs Standards Committee (DRSC).

Accounting reports

The preparation of the annual accounts must take place less than three months after the end of the financial year for medium and large companies, and less than six months later for small companies.

Unlimited liability companies and partial liability companies (Einzelkaufleute, OHG, KG) must draw up the following accounting documents:
- a balance sheet (Bilanz) in the format decreed by the 4th European Directive of 1978, adapted to German law in 1985.
- a profit and loss account (Gewinnund Verlustrechnung).
Limited liability companies (Gmbh and AG) must add to the two documents above:
- notes to the accounts (Anhang)
- an annual report (Lagebericht)
The financial flow table or cash flow table is not obligatory, except for companies listed on the stock exchange.

European companies listed on the stock exchange must establish their annual consolidated accounts on the basis of the IAS/IFRS standards.

Publication

The obligations of companies relative to the reporting of their accounts depend on their legal form: small company, medium company and large company (defined according to the total of the balance sheet, the net turnover and the members of staff employed).

Limited liability companies (Gmbh et AG), with the exception of small companies and groups of companies, must publish annual accounts and have them controlled by an outside auditor. On the other hand, unlimited liability companies (except KGaA) have no obligation to publish their accounts nor to have them audited.

Professional accountancy bodies