[hussong]

Personal tax rates are higher, at the same time you get better (and cheaper) healthcare.

Corporate tax rates are indeed higher in Germany. At the same time, there are lots of funding opportunities for startups from communal, national and EU business development programs, that can be seen as sort of a tax break.

Hiring is probably harder, since programmers are generally less interested in startups and prefer safe corporate jobs (outside of Berlin). Wages are significantly lower in Berlin than in West German cities. Firing is much harder than in the U.S.

[sneak]

The healthcare is not included in the cost of personal taxes.

Private healthcare here is much better, and about the same cost. It's a red herring.

[hussong]

Of course it's a separate payment, I was thinking in terms of total cost per employee.

[mdariani]

firing employees is in germany not really difficult, especially not for startups. every employee must serve a 3-6 months test period until he gets a professional contract. during the test period you will see, if the employee is performing well or not and you can fire the person easily the next day, if you want.

and hiring people in germany is much easier than in the valley or in new york, where you have huge competition from the big ones like google, facebook etc...