Taxes & insurance

There are three good reasons why it is important to deal with the topic of taxes before starting your own business:

• If you have opted for the small business regulation, you do not pay any sales tax to the tax office. Depending on the company and customer base, this can be useful.


• Since you may already buy office furniture, goods or the like before setting up your business, you can claim input tax as an entrepreneur. This is noted on all receipts, which is why you should keep them in a safe place.


• When choosing the legal form, tax issues must also be clarified. When calculating the income tax rate, the tax office assumes the information you provided about your expected profit as part of the tax registration for the first year. The tax office sets an annual amount that you have to make quarterly as an advance payment.

You have to pay taxes on your sales and profits and topics such as bookkeeping and annual financial statements are constant companions of self-employment. A tax advisor can advise you professionally and relieve you of a lot of work - from advising on a suitable legal form and efficient use of digital accounting software to advance VAT returns to qualified business advice.


The tax office not only informs you of your tax number, the frequency of the advance VAT return and the amount of the advance tax payments after processing the "questionnaire on tax registration", but also helps with clarifying tax issues. However, the tax office cannot provide individual, in-depth advice. A processing fee must also be paid for the provision of binding information.


"Who pays when?" - You can find an initial overview of taxes here:

Which insurances are you considering in the future? The answer is important for your personal security as well as for your financial and liquidity planning. In addition, you must take out the necessary company insurance. Here, too, we recommend competent advice from a start-up consultancy or an insurance company.

The most important insurances include:

Unemployment insurance for the self-employed

• Voluntary unemployment insurance, which must be applied for at the employment agency within three months of starting self-employment.


• Disability Insurance
  If you can no longer pursue your job for health reasons, the disability insurance pays a monthly pension. A self-employed person is only entitled to the payment of a disability pension if he voluntarily pays into the statutory pension insurance.


• Company insurance
  There are many different types of insurance available for your business, it is important that you identify your main risks in advance.


• Health insurance
  The self-employed can either remain a member of statutory health insurance or take out private health insurance.


• Artists' social fund
  Self-employed artists and publicists have pension, health and care insurance through the Artists' Social Fund (KSK).


• Professional pension funds
  Members of the collective liberal professions must insure themselves in professional pension funds.


• Accident insurance
  As a self-employed person, you must register with the responsible trade association. It is responsible for statutory accident insurance.