[southerndrift]

For startups, taxes for corporations don't matter. You only pay taxes on profits. If you are living off venture capital, then you have none. If you are self-funding with organic growth then you have to make sure that you spend all your profits on growth which you should do anyway. Once you have matured, you can still restructure the company like Apple or Google and turn into an Irish or Estonian company. That's the advantage of the EU.

High income taxes are a problem. But that's not a problem for founders since their profits are hidden in the increased value of the company. It's a topic for the employees. They have elected parties that redistribute income. It's their choice how they want to spend their income. If you compare wages between Germany and USA then those taxes haven't made German labor more expensive than US labor. People don't have to earn as much as possible right away because they don't face nothing should they ever become handicapped.

[kvz]

> If you are self-funding with organic growth then you have to make sure that you spend all your profits on growth which you should do anyway

In my case I have a mortgage and kids. To make sure we get by, with the high profit tax, there needs to be enough profit left, ergo, I’m not investing as much in the company to leave enough for the government and my family to consume.

I’m sure there are enough people who can get by with very little, and what you say makes sense. Just doesn’t apply to all, and that means on the country scale: smaller pool of people that are willing, and less money going back into growing companies.

[southerndrift]

That's why you find constellations where a wife owns a company and the husband is the manager or vice versa. The manager gets a regular salary onto which he pays regular income taxes. That way, the income doesn't touch the profit tax. It should be the same if your company has various shareholders.