Notary fees for GmbH formation in Germany

The company can only be effectively established by notarization of the articles of association. The notary not only carries out the notarization in the narrower sense. In the "normal case", the appointment of a managing director is also notarized by resolution of the shareholders' meeting as part of the formation. To register the company in the commercial register, the application must be submitted to the competent registry court in a publicly notarized form.

The notary is deemed to provide support and receive additional remuneration if he prepares the list of shareholders to be attached to the registration (§ 8 Para. 1 No. 3 GmbHG).

For the aforementioned activities, the notary charges the following for a share capital of EUR 25,000:

• for the notarization of the articles of association a double fee according to § 36 para. 2 KostO 168 €,
• for the notarization of the appointment of the managing director a double fee according to § 47 KostO 168 €,
• for the draft of the registration together with certification of the signature a half fee according to §§ 145 para. 1, 38 para. 2 no. 7 KostO 42 €,
• for the preparation of the list of shareholders a half fee according to § 147 para. 2 KostO 13 €.

In addition, there are expenses according to actual expenditure such as telephone and postage as well as VAT of currently 19 %; the rule of thumb for typing expenses is € 0.50 per page. The amount of these expenses essentially depends on the scope of the articles of association and the number of recipients of the copies.

If the GmbH is established by only one shareholder ("one-man GmbH"), the fee for notarization of the articles of association is reduced to €84. The amount of the service fee is a guideline.