Register small businesses in Berlin

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If you live in Berlin and would like to do a small business, you don't have many paths to deal with. Apply for a trade license by registering at the trade office. The office will take care of everything else for you.

As a major city, Berlin has a trade office where you can register a trade during opening hours and have a trade license issued without waiting. The cost is around 25 euros. Find out where the trade office is located in your district. In some districts, the economic and regulatory authorities issue the license for your small business.

You register the small business in Berlin at the trade office

  • For example, if you live in Mitte, Reinickendorf or Zehlendorf-Steglitz, the trade office is responsible for issuing the license for small businesses. In the districts of Pankow or Lichtenberg go to the public order office, in Kreuzberg or Charlottenburg to the economic office. You don't need an appointment, you can call there during business hours.
  • You need to briefly describe your business idea and take your ID with you. The description will be forwarded to the tax office. You can expand this later, but you must first specify at least one field of activity.
  • You have to pay the fee immediately, after which you will be given the trade license immediately.

There is no need to register if you are a freelancer

  • Consider whether you even need a trade license. Do you have a job that is one of the free catalog professions? In this case a trade license is not necessary. All you have to do is register with the tax office responsible for you in order to receive a tax number. As a freelancer, you do not have to pay trade tax, which is why you do not need to register a small business.
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  • Resident doctors and alternative practitioners are counted among the freelancers. In addition, artistic and scientific activities are among the freelance professions. Are you an author, writer, journalist, musician or do you have a teaching position, but none If you get a permanent position at a university, you are a freelancer and do not need a small business to register. This regulation does not differ in Berlin from other cities.

Sometimes the difference is quite subtle. For example, if you have trained as a photographer and you work in your own studio, you are a trader. If, on the other hand, you work as a writer and you have high-quality photographic equipment with which you take pictures in order to add them to your texts, you keep your status as freelancer, even if you are paid for texts with illustrations.

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